Surviving Shinobi 101
by Lia'Ceya
Summary: A young American teenager is reborn into the World of Ninjas and is determined to live her new life as a traveling merchant. Now if only she can stop making enemies with people who can breath fire and punch through steel. Cracky Oc-insert
1. Chapter 1: 4 years old part I

**This Empress Lia'Ceya with her second fanfiction!**

 ***Cheering***

 **This here is a non-serious Naruto Self-Insert following a pie loving moron, I started this fic because I get bored easy and need to waste time in my Sociology class, a hour long class doing nothing, ugh. Kinda Cracky, minimum effort, but I hope It makes people smile!**

 **Regal! Disclaimer Now!**

 **Regal: Huuuuh? What's a discallamingthing? Uh...claimer stuff?**

 **Just say I don't own Naruto, only my Ocs.**

 **Regal: Oh okay Suney-chan! Suney-chan doesn't own Naruto, she only owns her Ocs and her yummy pies. Mmmmm~ Pies~**

 **Edit: I'll fix formatting soon**

* * *

My tale isn't as extravagant as the journeys of Bearer of Courage, it's not as exciting as the life of the Fastest Thing Alive (and mortal), and It's certainly not as important to the world as the sunny haired Child of Prophecy. But it's my life, and I'm not willing to lose it doing things like saving the world or joining a army. I'm perfect content being a normal civilian trying not to get her ass burned off or blown to the high heavens, now if only I can stop making enemies with people who can summon giant animals and walk on walls, maybe I'd actually be able to survive.

I guess I'll have to introduce myself first, I used to be known as Miya Lily, a normal American teenager who loved sleeping and playing video games. I was a decent, lazy student in school who somehow made it through. I got good grades (Most of the time), I got along with most people, and I've sworn myself to a life of neutrality.

I hate taking sides and I prefer to help people settle their differences than help one or the other. I guess that's the reason why I was somebody people liked to share their troubles too, I never judged people for what they did or got through, so I never turned anyone away because of little things like that. But I also know that that is why I never had that many friends, not many people are willing to connect with you if you never take their side.

I was glad for the friends I had, they helped shape me into the sarcastic gamer girl that I am.

But that was all a past life, I still have the same values as Miya Lily, her mind, her personality, but my body is that of Rakka Yurei, a young civilian born girl born to traveling merchants during the Third Shinobi War.

Yup, Naruto. Whoo-hoo.

I'm so dead.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 1: Four Years Old Part I/2

It was calm, so calm that you could just feel the foreboding feeling gripping at your chest with it's steel cold claws, waiting to ensnare you in it's traps that could be hiding behind every corner. Which considering the state that this land has been in for the past few years, could very well come to past, whether it be unsprung traps left by shinobi, or the predators lurking in the shadows looking for a good meal.

Would shinobi be included in the predator part too? But I doubt that they would be looking for a good meal, at least I hope so. It would be odd if I died by getting eaten by a shinobi, but it is possible cannibal shinobi exist here, I don't remember hearing about any when I read the manga, not that I remember the damn series that well. Besides the basic stuff, it's mostly a blurry mess of snippets and quotes. Basicly nothing that will benefit me beyond knowing if I should run to or from them. Though considering they're shinobi, running to them will probably make all of them suspicious.

I'm going to note that in my rules of survival: No running towards shinobi I don't know, make sure the ones that I do know won't kill me either, actually don't run towards shinobi in general.

I know that not all of them would try to kill me if I do, but better safe than sorry.

"Rakka-chan, are you even listening to me?"

"Wha?"

The middle aged man standing next to me sighed. He rubbed his large hands through the brown mob he called his hair.

"If you keep dazing off like that, then how are you going to know when something is happening around you? What If you needed to run or hide from bandits or a wild boar decided that it wants to pummel the stupid humans into the ground? You'd be entirely spaced out and an easy target for just about everything, y'know?" He complained animatedly, waving his hand around lazily.

I just stuck my tongue out at him, not that I don't take his yapping seriously, but he's gave me this same lecture for most of my life. Not that I've been alive long anyways.

"Don't worry Dad, I'm sure nothing like that is going to happen if you keep watch."

He arched his eyebrow, looking down at me with that sceptical gaze of his. "And if I'm not keeping watch or your by yourself?"

Good point, I pressed my fist up against my chin at that thought. "Then I'm screwed," I shrugged, "Nothing I can do to stop them anyways, y'know?" It's not like I'm some super ninja or have some extraordinary chakra sensing, I'm not like those self inserts I used to read about for lolz. Me and Dad aren't special in any shinobi way, the both of us are just normal civilian merchants who are traveling the dangerous lands in search of money, food, and good business. Dad is a craftsman, he specializes in rebuilding damaged houses, making wagons and tools, and being a general handyman that most places are in need of.

Me? I'm a beginner chef, I may only be 4, but I have got to say I 'gotz the skillz'. My mom in my past life was a amazing home cook, and my grandpa was a professional chef for some fancy smancy restaurant in Hollywood. When my mom wasn't showing me the ropes for preparing basic home meals for when she doesn't feel like cooking, Grandpa was grilling me in more complex dishes that I made just to show off to my friends. It's safe to say that I carried over those skills in my new life, I do most of the cooking between me and now Dad. When now Mom was alive, she did almost all of the cooking, housekeeping, and other stuff I'm to lazy to put effort in. Now that she is gone and me and Dad are on the road, we don't have to worry about taking care of the house or garden anymore. Instead we have to dodge bandits, wild animals, shinobi, and still make enough money to keep us both alive.

Not a fair trade. I want housekeeping back! It's less life threatening!

Not to say it was all bad, our wagon is stocked with enough goods from our recent visit to a neutral village to keep us going for a good few weeks. But taking care of Brace and Mace (Our horses) and us at the same time is cutting through our supplies like a...hot kunai through cheese? I need to work on my analogies, that's what it's called right?

"Rakka-chan, would you do the honors of brushing down Mace? After that I want you to check over our food stores and weed out anything that spoiled."

"Okay Dad!"

I hurried over to the wagon and dug out the cleaning supplies out of one of the saddle bags in the front. I walked over to the black stallion with a red mane as he was grazing, he was still hooked up to the the wagon, while Brace was at the river getting cleaned by Dad.

Now, It may be crazy to have a barely over 4 foot little four year old girl clean a over 7 foot tall muscular Stallion with aversion to tiny, grabby, children? Simple! Mace has to be the most patient horse who hates kids I've ever met, I know he probably wants to kick my head off, which i'm sure he can, but he has spared me the beheading because he respects my dad. Sounds kinda weird doesn't it? Well Mace ain't not normal horse, his rusty red eyes are too intelligent to belong to a horse.

I'm not sure if Dad is aware of these or not, but I'm content not to mention it.

"Come on Mace, my main man, my home dog, you handsome stallion you! It's time to get that dirt and grime off of your body." I could've sworn I saw him give me this insufferable look, but he still let me unhook him and lead him over to wear Dad is finishing up on Brace. I pulled out the horse brush, I honestly don't remember if I should brush him first or get him wet, but I'm just going to brush him first anyways.

While I worked on getting Mace all clean and spiffy looking, I felt a large hand land on my head and ruffle my short hair.

"Hey stop it! You're making it even messier!" I whacked playfully at the hand, while I used the other to brush out Mace's mane. Dad grinned down at me and patted Mace's side.

"It still looks the same to me, ever considered brushing your hair for once?" He joked.

"Brush yours first and then we'll see." Honestly! His hair is just as bad as mine! Probably worse because of how much longer his is. Dad had shoulder length brown hair that's parted down the middle, it's thick as hell and falls freely around his wide shoulders in mess of naturally tangly curls. I tried combing it once, but the it's so thick that the teeth of the comb all broke off in his hair. It took forever to get all the pieces out of his hair, it would have been so much worse if his hair was any longer than it is.

Sadly I got my hair from Dad, It's a dark brown mess of curled spikes flying off in every direction, it's nowhere near as long as Dad's, It's barely 4 in. long and is barely manageable, what I wouldn't give to have Mom's long, flowing red hair, It never tangled. On that track, I barely have any similarities with my Mom, the only things that I got from her is her eye shape and color. I have really pretty light violet eyes, unlike Dad's dark gold eyes. I kinda wish I had Dad's eye shape, they looked so much cooler than mines.

Me and Dad have tanned skin, a little in the golden brown side. We're both built the same way, wide shoulders, long abdomen, big hands, long legs, and a nice butt if I do say so myself. Not that I look at Dad's butt, I look at mine, okay this is getting weird.

Survival Rule: Don't let your thought stray to anything M-rated if it concerns family. It keeps you sane longer.

Everyone we've come across while traveling, besides you know the ones who are trying to kill us, think that I'm my Dad's son, can't really blame them, I look like a healthy 4 year old boy. I'm pretty tall for my age, standing almost a head over other kids my age, and I'm fit too! Not fit like shinobi children, but I'm close dammit! I'm fairly (Read: absolutely) sure that I'm getting my height from Dad too. He stands at 6'07 ft! That man is a giant compared to me, Mom wasn't that short compared to other women, she just looked like a shrimp next to Dad. If I remember correctly...she was 5'07", not-too-bad not-too-bad. I'm probably going to grow over 6ft, I'm looking forward to it when it comes, I've always wanted to be a tall person.

I spent a few more minutes drying Mace off, before taking him back to the wagon and hooking him back up next to Brace. Brace happens to be a pretty brown horse with black leopard-like spots along his flank and neck. He is smaller than Mace, only being 6'03'ft, but he still keeps up with the stronger horse with no problems. Unlike Mace, Brace doesn't give me those strange looks and acts like a normal horse, whether that's an act or not is left to be seen.

"Rakka-chan, Did you finish checking our food supplies?"

"Not yet!" Yup, today was just a typical day for little old Rakka Yurei.

OoOoOoO

I peeked out of the blinded window of the cabin, I watched as the scenery traveled past my vision, ignoring the constant rumbling of the wheels hitting bumps along the road.

I was bored, no doubt about it.

There wasn't much to really do when we're on the roads, during the traveling periods I wasn't allowed to be outside of the cabin thing, for safety reason is what Dad told me. But I don't see how that will stop bandits or shinobi from finding me or just blowing the wagon up with me in it. So I think it's a wasted effort in it's entirety.

"Hey Dad, how much longer before we reach the Hi no Kuni?"

If I remember correctly, we're currently in the Land of Earth near the border with the Land of Fire. We had just came from the Village called Chikyu-Taki, a small town consisting of mostly civilian merchants. We did some trading with a few of the food vendors, but turns out that one of them managed to scam us with seemingly good dry noodles, but Dad found out that it was laced with some sort of powdered poison. He didn't bother to give me much details about it, but he dealt with the merchant using his sneaky slandering ways. Dad can be terrifying if crossed, he may not have skills in physical combat, but he can be a real sneaky bastard by using connections and words to stir up some really trouble. I'm proud of him.

"Give or take a few hours if we have no interruptions, we'll be arriving at the border soon."

"Okay!"

Man this is dreary, maybe I should just go to sleep or something. I crossed my arms and leaned back on the new pump pillow, trying to get a little comfortable in the back. Kinda hard when the occasional tool or something pokes me somewhere. I guess this'll be a good time to ponder about the future, not mine mind you, but of this world as a whole. Recently me and Dad got word during on of our town visits that there has been a few tussles along the borders between nations, but there hasn't been anything else of note. The Third war wasn't going to start until a few years from now anyways. But the aftershocks from the recently settled Second war is still going strong, many villages are still trying to recover from all the damages. Which is what Dad is here for.

We've seen more shinobi than bandits recently, with all this happening it makes sense, it's going to be a while before bandits decide it's safe enough to come out of the shadows without getting wasted by tense shinobi.

I wonder how many of them are still around anyways, there is not anywhere that is entirely safe, shinobi can reach all the places civilians can and then some. You could consider Mount Myoboku, but how the hell are we going to get there!? There might be some other places that are isolated from both shinobi and civilians, but I don't particularly see how me and Dad are going to get there.

I dug into one of the bags in the back and pulled out most recent map produced of the Elemental Nations. Since we are heading to the Land of Fire I should start looking for the safest places to hide out the next war. The land of Whirlpools is probably a good place to go, but I'm not looking forward to get past any untripped Uzumaki seals, and there might be bandits living in the ruins. Bandits love ruins. Chances are that most of the Land of Fire is inhabited by people, not many places to hide in a country so big…

I groaned and tossed the map over my shoulder, "Guess we just have to head to the neutral lands and hope we don't get killed by border patrols. Maybe Tetsu no Kuni, that place is as good as any, y'know?"

"No luck finding a place to wait out the war?"

"Nope, chances are is that we will just have to got through Hi no Kuni as fast as we can and head to one of the neutral countries that won't get involved in the Third Shinobi War. Tetsu is our best bet, they haven't participated in any of the wars, and won't until the Fourth Shinobi War. But that's like 30+ years from now."

"Okay then, I've only traveled to Tetsu once when I was..17 maybe? I don't remember much about the land, other than that it was snowy, fairly barren, and is full of samurais. But it probably is our best bet like you said. Do you remember the date that the next war starts?"

"Not at all, I don't remember the official dates or timelines of the world that well. Sorry Dad. But If it makes you feel any better, The next war won't kick off until a few years from now."

Yeah, he knows. My Dad is fully aware that I'm not only a reincarnation, but that I know of the future too. I didn't see any reason not to tell him, he's my Dad after all. He took it better than Mom, who just thought I was out of my mind. Dad actually sat me down in his lap and asked me about my friends and family from my past life. He didn't pick at it and told me that he is willing to believe me.

It helped my cause that I never tried to hide my intelligence from either of my parents, nor did I hide the fact that I knew things that I shouldn't. Like I said, I don't see why I should, it's not like my parents where shinobi or lived in a shinobi village, so I'm not worried about getting my brain picked apart. Only downside of it all is that Mom ended up thinking I was crazy, never corrected her anyways, I am sorta crazy. I like throwing pies at people, good pies.

"We're here."

I perked up and crawled towards the front of the wagon so I can peek through the curtains draped over the window thing. I stayed silent as I watched my Dad talk with the men guarding the border, they were talking in low tones, so I couldn't really make out what they was saying. I huffed lightly, I was still bored since I can't actually interact with with the guys, I'll just let Dad handle this crap. Getting back onto my pillow, I curled up and got a comfortable as possible.

It was a few minutes before the wagon started moving again, the telltale signs being the rumbling of the wooden...vehicle? as Brace and Mace start pulling it along. I might as well take nice long nap before we arrive to the next town to do business.

OoOoOoO

"Forunupai! Get You Pie! Pies of all flavors await your table tonight! Come by a Pie! 250 ryo for a whole pie and 30 ryo for a slice!"

I cried out my slogan again and again, bringing in attention from the citizens of Ragoumashi Town, I tried my best to pull in customers, competing against the other merchants in the Market district. Dad stood behind our stand and dealt with the money and sells while I used my 'Cute little child' charm to bring in more and more customers.

"Come buy a Forunupai Pie! Flavors come in Apple, Banana, Grapefruit, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Chocolate, and Strawberry! Come enjoy one of our famous pies! Y'know?" I think I could feel my smile stretching my face out, it hurts.

I was dressed in one of my best outfits, which consisted of a my wild hair forcefully brushed back with a bright purple headband decorated with a light pink bow on either sides. A short-sleeved sun-dress that had a purple top with a long flowing skirt that fades from purple to light pink at the edges, a small pink ribbon belt tied around my waist. I wore purple sandals and had purple fingerless elbow length gloves. All in all I think I look adorable! And as you can tell, I really like purple.

"Hey Look!"

I heard a voice from the crowds that sounded reeeeeaaalllly familiar, I turned from the customer I just finished convincing to buy and peered into the crowded, looking for any familiar faces. After searching for somebody I know, which was no one might I add, I shrugged off the voice and started yelling again.

"Excuse me miss." A deeper than mine (Not a hard feat) voice said from behind me, making me turn and face whoever called me with a giant smile.

"Yes Sir? Here to buy one of our famous Pies? They're worth every bit of ryo y'know!"

I choose to ignore the fact that I was preeeetty sure I was talking to Minato Namikaze, I mean how many other spiky blond haired teenagers with pretty blue eyes wearing a Konoha forehead thingy is out there in the world besides Naruto? Also accompanied by a red haired girl with purple eyes that looked suspiciously like mom? Not many I'm sure.

Kushina grinned down at me, she was really pretty y'know? She had her red hair up in a high ponytail and was wearing that light brown/tan/beige? Kimono top outfit she wore when she was shown as a teenager in the manga/anime. She was probably 15 right now based on looks alone. Well, at least I know for sure that the Third Shinobi War isn't happening in awhile.

"What type of pies do you have Kiddo?"

I grinned wider, "We have Apple, Banana, Grapefruit, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Chocolate, and Strawberry. But we also have a few mixed pies like Chocolate Strawberry Pie and Apple Honey Pie! Whole Pies are 250 ryo and Slices are 30 ryo. Please Choose whatever you like!" I swept my hand towards our stand, where Dad was already talking to Minato about something.

"Sweet!" She pumped her fist and hurried over to where the Blond shinobi was browsing our pies, talking to him excitedly while pointing at various pies we had set out as display. I smiled genuinely this time, watching as our stand became successful in the time we've been here. People who have tasted my pies always come back for more, not that they knew that I made them from scratch by myself. Who would buy a pie if it was made by a four in a half year old? I personally would and just hope that the aftereffects aren't THAT bad.

How our work days go, between me and my Dad, is that in the morning from 5 am to 10 am, we offered Dad's services as a craftsman and sold his works. Then at 12 am we start selling my pies until 6 pm. After that we pack up and repeat the next day. We do this for 3 days before we buy any needed supplies and get back on the road. Don't want to stay in one area too long.

I noticed Minato and Kushina starting to leave the stand, 3 pies packed up and stacked in the blonde teenager's arms. I waved to them as they leave, "Have a nice day! Eat lots of Pie and Ramen!" I saw the redhead give a thumbs up before they disappeared into the crowd…

Wonder why they were here buying pies when they're most likely on a mission. Oh well.

You might be wondering why I wasn't freaking out by seeing such important characters aren't you? Well that brings up one of my rules: If you see a canon character, don't overreact, just treat them like they're a normal person.

We had not other interesting guests or events for the rest of our time here, nor did we see the two shinobi again during our stay. So on the third day we was packing all of our supplies back into the wagon and getting the horses ready for a few days of long travel. Hopefully nothing happens on our trip closer to the heart of the Fire.

OoOoOoO

I could almost feel the incredulous stares of Dad and Mace as I danced in the clearing we decided to stop in for awhile. And by dance, I was currently doing the troll dance to a remix of the troll song in my head. I must look really ridiculous to them, but I couldn't care any less I was having fun!

Changing my dance to what I remember as the Bagel dance, to the bagel song. Yup, pretty sure Mom would have sent me to the nearest funny house if she could see me now.

"Rakka-chan, come over here"

I stopped dancing halfway through Party Rock Anthem and skipped over to Dad, I was curious to what he could want after working on her wood near the wagon.

"Yes sir?" I watched as Dad lay down a large white sheet of paper and a jar of black ink. He gestured for me to sit down and searched his bag for an extra brush. I sat cross legged in front of him and rested my elbows on my knees. "Soooo, what's this all about?"

"You know about chakra right?" I nodded, "Well, I think it's about time I show you some tricks of the trade. Your Kaa-san would've been a much better choice to teach you her family seals, but I'll just have to do for now. You know that your Kaa-san was from a civilian branch of the Uzumaki clan right?" I nodded again, a small grin beginning to stretch across my face, "Well I'm going to teach you how to manipulate your chakra enough to use basic storage seals and a few barrier seals. Since neither I or your Kaa-san where shinobi, our chakra systems are nowhere near as potent as a shinobi born. However, due to your mother being an Uzumaki she was able to pass down her naturally large chakra pool to you, so you will be able to utilize these seals at a high level than I ever can."

He slowly started drawing japanese characters on the paper, with me watching intently. I can't believe he was going to teach me seals! I mean, I knew he knew how to use them, but I didn't think that civilians could actually make any use of them. Show what I know.

For the rest of the stay in the clearing, Dad taught me about advanced calligraphy...I think that's what he said it was, and I have to admit, it's fun! I love drawing and writing, and making all of these fancy characters is like trying out a new art style! I haven't applied any chakra to the ink or anything yet, mostly because I don't have access to my chakra yet. Lucky self inserts who did, bleh.

Now how to manipulate seals into amazing pranking tools, like Pie related pranks! Like sending pies raining down people! or Shooting pies directly at people's faces! Or maybe….

OoOoOoO

I sat cross legged in the clearing, trying to clear my mind enough to fall into a meditative….uh something.

"Concentrate Rakka-chan."

I peeked open one of my eyes to look at Dad sitting across from me, also sitting in the lotus position.

Right now Dad was helping me release my chakra, or at least trying. It was more difficult than I was expecting it to be, but I guess I should have expected it. I know I have chakra, but I can't really feel it, It didn't stand out to me or anything. It was just there.

I had to focus, I know that the chakra pool is usually centered in the abdomen, so that's where I had to search inside myself for. I blocked out all the noises around me and concentrated on just my own body, I stayed still until I started to feel that.. power inside? It was there, just out of my reach.

I mentally stuck my tongue out as I reached for the power...chakra, and tried to grasp it. But the damn thing just slipped back when I touched it. I tried to grab it again, but like before it just danced out of my way.

Okay, this was getting annoying.

This cycle repeated after a few more attempts, and I was frustrated now! No matter how I try to get it, it just keeps getting away. I didn't know when I had lost my focus, but I feel back onto the grass while groaning.

"Why is this soooooo haaaaard?"

I heard Dad sigh from his position by the fire...when did that get there? He ran his hand through his thick ass hair, shaking his head.

"You're not concentrating, you keep breaking focus just when you start to release your chakra." He told me, "But we still have time, after eating I want you to try again. You'll get it soon." He beckoned me over. I got up and crawled over to his side, pressing up against his side. He handed me a bowl of soup and let me enjoy my break, is was starving after all of those failed attempts.

After dinner, I went back to trying to get my chakra to stop being an elusive bitch and become mine. I didn't get any leeway until it was almost time for me to go to sleep, when I finally managed to get some reigns around the damned chakra.

It felt amazing! As soon as I released my chakra and it flowed through my system with a renewed vigor that it didn't have before. It felt so...different when it's activated, I could almost literally feel it seeping into my body, it left me all giddy!

I tried to make it pool into my hands to see if I could force it out, but it just kept flowing like it didn't hear what I said.

"It's not listening to me." I deadpanned, staring blankly at my grinning dad.

"That's because you need to learn how to control your chakra first Kiddo. I know some chakra control exercises that I picked up the last time I was in Konoha, I managed to convince some cute little kids to explain it to me." He winked at me, "Hope your ready for some basic training starting tomorrow."

I just sighed tiredly, what the hell am I getting myself in to?

OoOoOoO

So chakra control exercises, not a very easy thing for a young little girl like me to learn without any shinobi teachers. I found out that Dad only had a basic idea on how to do them, he told me he wanted me to master Leaf sticking first, since it's the easiest way to gain any control.

I stuck out my tongue, trying to ignore the bumpity bumps as the wagon was pulled along the road, it was deceptively hard when I was concentrating so hard on keeping the paper on my forehead.

I'd been practicing the leaf exercise ever since I work up this morning, I nabbed a small piece of paper from the bags and jumped right into it. So far I was only able to hold it for… 15 seconds before it fell off. The one sticking on my head has lasted at least 20 seconds and counting.

A sudden bump from the wagon made me lose my concentration, the paper floating down to the floor while I wondered why we stopped. "Dad! What was that?" I got to my knees and crawled up to the front of the wagon, pushing the curtains enough so that I could see what was going on outside.

"Don't worry Rakka-Chan… It was just a rough hit to the wheels." I heard him say from somewhere around the corner. I went over to the door and poked my head out, watching as Dad stared at the damaged looking wheel with irritation. "It looks like one of the stakes snapped, I'll have to replace this fast." He mumbled, rubbing the side of his head.

"Do you need any help" I asked as I slipped out of the wagon with the bag holding Dad's tools.

He took them from me with a look of gratitude, "Can you go bring out the stakes of wood from the back of the wagon?" I nodded and got back in the wagon to get the stakes, which was underneath the portable oven I asked Dad to make for me so I could bake pies. After I dragged the stakes back to Dad, he told me to go practice my chakra control close by while he fixed the wagon.

I walked a little bit from where we were currently and picked up a leaf off of the ground. I placed it against my forehead and focused my chakra into my forehead, I centered it to the leaf and used my chakra like a glue to keep it on. Imagining my chakra like a glue seems to be the most helpful way for me to do it. I let go of the leaf and concentrated on keeping it on my head without dropping it.

It was considerably easier than when I first started this morning, It didn't take nearly as much focus to control my chakra.

Cheep-cheep!

"Holy sh-!" And just like that I lost my concentration, waving my hands wildly at the bird that had the gall to perch on my head. "Help! I'm being attacked by a bird!" I mocked screamed, running around flailing in circles before running into a tree.

I stared blankly up at the sky as the bird re-landed on my face. "You got some gall buster." I glared at the cute little birdie, I wonder if I could do the leaf sticking exercise on the bird… Never know until you try!

I did exactly what I do for the leaf training, and tried to glue the feet of the bird to my face. The bird squawked when my chakra touched it and tried to fly away, read tried, because it couldn't get any lift off and my face got a pleasant breeze/smacking combo.

I grinned wide, I could feel the bird tugging at my chakra and I had to tug back in order to keep it firmly stuck to my face. This was definitely more fun that the boring old leaf exercise!

Eventually the bird decided to peak my face off and I let it go, besides, I felt pretty drained from the chakra tug-o-war. I think I had a good training session, and by the time I got back to Dad the wheel was all fixed up and ready to go. I also managed to keep a leaf stuck to my forehead for 5 minutes! That tug war really helped, I need to do that again sometimes!

Survival Rule: Don't mess with birds, they have friends.

I got attacked by birds a few days later.

OoOoOoO

We've arrived to Shukuba Town, which means that it's time to hit that market district and start selling! I was giddy at the prospect of getting to sell again after a week of traveling, But before we can do anything Dad has to book us a room at the inn.

I smushed my face against the window, the curtains drapping on either side of my shoulder.

It looked just how I remembered from the anime! It was so flipping colorful and full of people! Hopefully not S-rank Missing Nin, that would be bad, very bad.

Survival Rule: Never encounter S-rank Missing nin, If you see one pretend to note notice and get out of the town as sooooon as possible without catching their attention.

I watched the colorful town pass by me and the wagon, trying to see if I could spy anything interesting among the people here. Hopefully no bandits either. Soon enough we pulled up to one of the inns, during the trip I noticed that some people were eyeing our horses and wagon, but I'm sure that Mace can handle it.

Why? He's just badass like that.

"Rakka-Chan, while I go get us a room, I need you to prepare our supplies for tomorrow."

I nodded and started digging around for all of our goods. If you haven't noticed by now, the wagon seems to carry a lot of shiz. That's not only because of snazzy seals, but because its giant! It's one of the large fancy carriages that have walls and a roof, so it's completely closed off.

I waited until Dad came back and told me where our room is before I choose which of our supplies will be going in first. Since Dad will be selling first, I'll get his stuff ready first and foremost. While he sells I'm going to be baking all of my pies for my afternoon pie sells. That's usually how we do it.

Hopefully sells go good tomorrow.

~Next day~

I stared into the scorching hot oven, ignoring how all the heat waves was screwing with my eyes.

Dad was already out in the market district trying to get people to by his crafts and to see if he could snatch up any repair jobs around the town. I'm not too worried about him right now, he has been going around selling things longer than both of my lives combined, He knows how to do this waaay better than me. With the end of the war I'm sure his skills are in high demand.

So here I was, sitting down cross legged watching as those delectable, delicious, moist, flavorful, and irresistible pies baked themselves into perfection inside the custom made oven.

I shuddered happily, drooling at the tasty smell drifting into my senses. "Hmmmmm."

So far I have 20 of each of our standard pies packed and ready for eating, I have 5 Strawberry Chocolate pies, 3 Honey Apple Pies, 2 Mulberry black pies, and 3 Mixed fruit pies. Since the oven can cook 4 pies at the same time (Two on each rack), I have 2 Mulberry Blacks, 1 Honey apple, and 1 Mixed fruit pie. After that I need to make 1 of each (Cept Strawberry Chocolate) to finish off the typical requirements for a single day's sells.

The pies should be ready in 5 minutes, how can I tell without a timer or a way to keep time? I'm just that good at making them, It could be my cutie mark! *Snort*

Well since I have those few minutes to spare, I'm going to finish putting the spiced topping on on the Apple Honey pie. I crawled over to where I had the unbaked pies sitting on a flat plank of wood. I had the entire room set up so that I won't make too much of a mess and/or burn the inn down. Dad helped me move a slab of stone in for the oven to sit on, and I used extra blankets to cover the floor so that I could work on it without contaminating my lovely pies.

I picked up a small shaker full of a lovely blend of Cinnamon, Brown sugar, Nutmeg, and some other fancy spice. Trust me, it was not easy to get my hands on half of these spices in this world, It's hard enough to get my normal ingredients. So I have to be conservative if we can't afford or find any of my most needed spices. So when I covered the top of the pie with the spice mix, I didn't use as much as I would've if I was back in my past life, just enough to give those caramelized granny smith apple slices a nice brown sheen.

I sighed happily, this room smelled divine and would continue to smell divine for days after we left this room. I loved the smell of the honey apple pie the most, it's just something about that strong apple smell blended with cinnamon with just a hint of sweet honey. It's a shame I can't eat the product.

I straightened up instantly a moment later, "Pies are done~" I sung, stranding up to reach the mittens so I can safely remove the pies from the burning that was sure to follow if I didn't get those pies out in the next few minutes.

I wonder if an Uchiha could reach into the oven without any negative effects, they seem to love fire anyways. Maybe I should ask one day.

OoOoOoO

We have been in Shukuba for 3 days now, and everything was going just as we thought it would. Me and Dad managed to make some real good profit this time around. Although I hadn't managed to sell out this time.

I still had a few pies left, all nicely packed in there small boxes. The Mixed berry pies didn't sell as well as I hoped, I still had 4 left out of the 10 I made. But it didn't discourage me, some flavors just didn't appeal to other people, but I didn't know what I should do with them.

I rubbed the back of my head, I could probably sell them for cheap in the shadier parts of town, but I don't think it would be healthy to go into the red-light area as a helpless 4 year old and a half girl.

Survival Rule: Never go into the red-light districts unless you have a death-wish, too many bad things can and will happen to you. Especially if you a little 4 year old girl who looks like a little 7 year old boy.

Aside from going anywhere near the slums, I don't really know what to do with them. I mean sure It's a source of food for me and Dad, but as much as we like pies and sweets, it's not going to keep us healthy for travel. I may make loads of pies and love pies to the end of my existences, but as a growing little girl I can't eat nothing but pie without getting super sick. And I hate being sick.

I stared at the Mixed berry pies blankly, trying to think up a good way to use these pies without wasting their goodness.

The answer came to me when me and Dad arrived at a small town on our way to Konoha, we was just stopping for a quick check up on our supplies. I didn't have anything to really do besides sit around in the wagon waiting for Dad to finish whatever business he had here, and I've been doing exactly that for most of my life! I really needed to find something else to do for once before I die of boredom, the leaf exercise can only hold my attention for so long.

Speaking of the leaf sticking thingy, I can now hold up to two pieces of paper on my forehead with only chakra for over an hour without any strain! I don't actually know how long I can hold them, I got bored after an hour and stopped, but I'm still stroked that I finally got that technique down! It sure took long enough!

Back to what I was originally talking about, I decided that today was gonna be the day that I do something else besides hiding in the wagon. So I grabbed my favorite stick, put on my sandals, and marched out into the world with only my wits to back me up.

Not really.

I just asked Dad is I could wander around the area, since I'm pretty sure he trusts me enough not to somehow get myself killed, he gave me his approval before heading off.

And so here I am, wandering through the dirty streets of a town I know nothing about and have no clue as to where the hell I am.

Yup. Maybe Dad shouldn't trust me by myself, I clearly don't know what I'm doing.

Well I'm pretty sure I'm officially lost, I haven't seen anything recognizable since I passed that one lady with the cane 3 times now.

I sighed, rubbing my tangly hair in mild annoyance, I really need to learn how to pay attention to my surroundings, maybe then I could figure out how to get back to my wagon, and hopefully before someone decides they want to take that lost helpless little girl. Yeah this wasn't a wise idea on my part, but I also blame Dad for agreeing with me.

A small whimper caught my attention. I looked around for whatever was making that noise, frowning. "Wonder who that was…" I muttered, still trying to spot what could be making that sound, it was really tugging on my heart strings dammit! I listened more carefully, walking slowly around a corner into a dank alley, where I was pretty sure whatever is crying was in.

I silently prayed that I don't walk into some gruesome scene or that it's a trap as I took carefully steps around some broken glass lying around.

I spotted a small ball of something lying on the ground, curled up tightly into a quivering ball. And I'm pretty sure this is the person I heard whining, How? Because they are currently crying there eyes out, wonder why.

Now typically this would be a good point to turn away and act like I didn't see jack, but curse my bleeding heart, I can't let somebody be sad all alone, people deserve to be happy dammit!

Once again hoping that if I get any closer that they won't jump up and stab me or something, I carefully inched my way over to the person, child actually, crying in the dirty alleyway. They didn't look up or show any signs of acknowledging me coming closer, to busy with their own woes. When I was almost standing next to the kid, I took notice of the dirty blue hair flowing over the kid's shoulders and face, acting as a long cover for their face. They was wearing what looked like torn rags, which I'm pretty sure was just some really old clothes. It was really a badly worn t-shirt and shorts, the kid wore no shoes so I could see the blisters and shiz covering their bare lower legs.

I saw small bruises on their body, they looked more like blunt bruising than anything else, like the kid falls a lot or got hit with a blunt object multiple times. I can see some jagged cuts, like they got cut by a sharp stick or something. I'm not really good at this analyzing wounds crap.

I scowled, "Hey kid."

They didn't react to me, and by know their loud sobbing was getting really annoying to my ears. I stepped in front of the kid and pulled up their bangs so I can see their face.

Instantly clouded dark blue eyes met my own violet ones, one in fear and surprise, the other staring down with worry and annoyance. The kid, a boy now that I can see his face clearly, jumped back from me clear shock and smacked himself against the alley wall, drawing a pained whimper from him.

"Ple'se don' 'urt me!" He cried, covering his head with his time hands as he cowered before me. Me of all things, I'm not scary in the least! I think...Anyways, the boy's voice is high pitched and shaky in fear, his blue hair once again covering his face as he cried.

"I'm not gonna hurt you kid." I started, stepping forward "I just wanna know why you're crying up a storm in the middle of some dank alley and disrupting my being lost time."

He looked at me from between his hair, cloudy eyes watery and mistrusting. I could see the fat tears falling down his bruised pale skin, him biting his lip and sniffing up snot, ew. He tried to impersonate a ghost and slid into the walk for a quick escape, cept he wasn't a ghost and couldn't go through the wall like he obviously wanted too.

I frowned again, before shaking me head and giving him a small smile. He look like a cute kitten terrified out it's wits and trying to hide under the bed. And since she has experience with needy, fearful kittens, she going to treat this kid like on.

"Calm down Kiddo, I'm not gonna hurt you." I spoke this softly, trying to appear less threatening in the eyes of the little boy. He looked so small all huddled up, he couldn't be that much older than me.

He eyed me warily, "Don' t'ust ya'"

I tilted my head to the side, "Why don't you?"

"L'ke all ot'ers…" He mumbled, shifting like a scared rat looking for an escape, okay I really need to stop with these analogizes, I'm getting tired of them.

"How so? Do you know me?" He didn't answer me this time, he only gave me that distrusting look, "If you don't know me you can't compare me to others, so i'll show you why I'm different kid!" I closed the gap between us and through my arms around the kid, and never before was I so happy that I had a really strong body and uzumaki blood than now, cause that little bugger went completely off when I bear hugged him.

He screamed, thrashed, bit, and cried for what felt like hours, or minutes I'm not good with time, before he slowly started to wear himself out. I held him nice and tight so he couldn't escape my love. He whimpered softly, his thrashing fading to a weak push, obviously worn out from trying to escape.

I tilted my head away from him, studying how he went completely lax in my arms. We sat there on the ground together, not talking or moving other than the soft sobs and occasional shake of the boy's shoulder.

"Are you okay now?" I asked, since I knew I had a high chance of scaring him off after that little stunt I pulled. The kid only tilted his head up slightly, enough that one of his eyes was visible peering up at me in a mixture of emotions, mostly confusion now.

Sudden thought: I wanna hear him laugh!

So I unclasped my hands and rested both of them on the kid's sides before tickling him mercilessly. The response was instantaneous, the boy squirmed helplessly under my assault, strangled squeals and laughs coming from his mouth. He wiggled out of my grasp and scooted out of my reach, breathing heavily with a tiny smile.

I grinned at him, puffing out my chest proudly, I got him to laugh! And he's not crying anymore! Double plus!

"Does your chest feel better?" He frowned at me, tilting his head to the side. His bangs parted enough that both of his pretty eyes where in plain view.

"How 'id ya' k'ow?" He asked quietly, rubbing his puffy red eyes softly.

"You were sad, so your chest must have felt heavy and painful. But it is better?" He nodded slowly, "Well then I did my job!" I stood back from the kid and offered him a hand.

He stared at it before taking it slowly, letting me pull him up onto his feet. Now that we're both standing I can see the height difference more clearly. The kid came up to my chin, I kinda sorta expected him to be taller than me (curse of the short person) and now that I think about it, he looks younger than me too. I also heard the tale-tell signs of somebody being hungry. He blushed.

I'll have to ask how old he is later. Food comes first.

"Hey kiddo, want to come hang with me?"

"Uuuh...sure?"

"Great!" I grabbed his wrist and ran out the alley, then I remembered that I have no idea where I'm even going. I had to laugh at that, hopefully the kid knows how to get to that open area that my wagon is at.

"Hey Kid, you like pie?"

OoOoOoO

It's been an interesting few days here in this town, Kiko, it wasn't in the best shape cause of the war, but it's pulling through. We've been here for two days instead of the planned one, mostly because Dad took up a bigger job than he originally thought. I didn't really see much of him while he was off doing whatever, I didn't want to bother him right now anyways, He seemed way too busy as it is. So I keep the fact that I got lost to myself and spent most of my time playing with the kid I found in that alley. He seems to be doing much better after he started hanging with me.

The kid was obviously an orphan, probably a war one too. I never saw him with any adults or even other kids. He is so awkward, it doesn't look like he had much positive social interaction in his life. I can tell just because how he reacts every time I do something nice for him. He freezes up when I hug him(or make any physical contact), doesn't know how to take a compliment, stutters badly when he talks to me (Added with his screwed up grammar, I could barely understand him.), and doesn't know how to play normal kid's games. Poor, deprived boy.

I took notice of other things about him too! He was underweight for a kid his age (Turns out he is 7!), so I know that he probably doesn't get a chance to eat much. He has loads of bruises, which are really from being a total clutz combined with a few bullies hanging around the town. He sucks at being sneaky (It's like a herd of stampeding buffalo), as many hide and seek games told me.

He is shy, no surprise there, and doesn't know how to take me. But then again, I'm not sure how anyone can take this gorgeous pie lady. Oh, and he likes my Mixed berry pies, whether that's because it's the only food he's had or he genuinely likes it is to be determined. But I think he's warming up to me, He is a little more open about himself and smiles way more often. He has been trying more in our games and is starting to talk more boldly in our conversations.

So I think I'm doing a great job breaking him in. Too bad it's almost time for me to go.

I wonder If I could bring him with me…

I kicked my one of my legs as I sat on a large rock in the ground, watching the kid run around chasing a ball I found in the back of the wagon. You know I really need to learn his name, I don't think I even asked.

"Hey Kid! Come here!" I called, waving him over. The blue haired boy stopped the ball with his sandaled feet and kicked it over to my rock before running over to me. I scooted of the rock and picked up the ball, eyeing the kid as he stood in front of me.

He cocked his head to the side, "Yes?"

I tossed the ball up and caught it, "I going to be leaving this town soon. I don't know when I can come back here." If I was going to say it, I'm going to say it without beating around the bush.

And now he looks like he's going to cry again, oh boy. "Hey now! Don't start crying yet!" I don't need him crying right now! "Let me finish explaining!" I huffed lightly, I tucked the ball under my arm and used the other to pull the smaller body into a hug.

"Now listen up kid, I have an idea," I turned him in the direction towards my wagon, "Me and Dad are pretty well off y'know? So hows this food for thought?" I whirled him around to face me with a large grin and spread my free arm out, "Do you want to travel around with me and Dad? I know you don't have anything left in this village and it's not the happiest place for you, so I think that staying with us will be better, agreed? I doubt Dad would mind you tagging along, he likes you y'know, as long as you earn your keep you can go with us anywhere!"

He gaped at me, before running his hand along his hair in what I learned was a habit. His blue eyes stared at me in shock, before starting to shimmer slightly. "I-I...T'ank ya'!" He tackled me and pulled me into the strongest hug I've felt in awhile, now that I thinking about it this is the first hug he has initiated. Kid has strong hugs, gotta give him that.

"Hey hey! Heh, no need to break my back Kid, it's the least I could do to help a friend...actually," I pushed him away by the shoulders and smiled sheepishly, "What's your name anyways?"

Cue awkward staring, I think I see his eye twitching.

-Waap!- "Youch!" I rubbed where the little shit hit me, glaring at the pissed looking brat. "What was that for?"

He puffed out his cheeks, "'Cause ya' 'cting 'tupid! Why did ya' ask me to 'ive wit' ya' if ya' 'ever ask my name!? Why did't ya' ask for my name in the 'irst p'ace!? You sh'uld ask by now! How come ya' 'ever br'ught it up huh!" He ranted while I tried to figure out what the hell he just said, that's something I'm going to need to fix during our time together.

I hold both of my hands up and wave them around, "Whoa whoa calm down kid! I'm Rakka Yurei, and my dad is Kamiaki Yurei."

The brat huffed and crossed his arms, letting his bangs shift over his eyes. "My name is Madori."

I slide up to him and toss my arm around his shoulders, "Welcome to the squad Madori-Kun! We'll have tons of fun together on the road." He turned his head away from me, but not fast enough that I didn't catch the smile on his lips.

Now I just got to convince dad.

OoOoOoO

"Like this?"

"Yeah! Keep it up Tori-chan"

"Don't call me dat!"

I watch with a grin as the paper fluttered down on the carpeted floor, Madori's look of flustration was hilarious, It reminded me of when I first did the leaf exercise, good times good times. It shouldn't be too surprising that the kid was able to unlock his chakra waaaaay faster than me, he has home advantage after all. But as it is, he has been progressing through the same training that I have for the past few months in only 2 hours.

I CALL HAX!

"I'm so jealous right now," I mumbled, running my hand against my chocolate hair. Tori-chan smirked at me and did the exercise again, "You're getting this much faster than I did, it took me fooooorrrreeeevvvver to learn how to control my chakra, but you're making it look so easy."

The blue haired brat tossed the left half of his bangs over his shoulder, "Maybe It's just because I'm better than ya'. A complete natural y'know?" I personally think his parent's are shinobi born, that's the most reasonable thing I can think of at the moment. As it is, he has more fighting potential than me, I may be built better then him, but once he completely gets rid of his malnourishment and starts to train physically, he'll be more deadly than I ever will.

Unless I decide to become a fuinjutsu master. It's probably the one thing I will always excel in.

I rolled onto my stomach, looking up at the cross legged boy. I let my eyes stray from him and took in the room I was in. It was a decent sized room, two beds, one drawer, a table lamp, and a small table that currently held our new supplies. Since Madori has with us, Dad insisted on him learning some type of trade, one that can make us a few extra ryo to help feed the extra mouth on the road. So far the kid has been doing a decent job at making small repairs like Dad. I tried to teach him how to use my stone oven buuuut…..that didn't go too well.

I'll tell you that story later.

Madori can only do basic repairs like fixing up holes and using duck tape, which is also the basis of what I can do, so it doesn't add much profit. Meh, at least we have extra hands.

I felt somebody knock on my forehead, "Oi, ya' still dere?" I scrunched my face and swatted his hand away but he started poking my head repeatedly.

"Stop that."

"No."

I glared at him, "Stop that or I won't make any pancakes today." That should get him, he loves his damn pancakes, almost like how Uzumaki with ramen.

He stopped instantly, glaring at me, "Ya' did not just dreaten my pancakes." He hissed. I just smirked back at him as I got off the ground.

"I just did kid," I reached up and stretched my arms, "You know perfectly well that I'm the only one who can make pancakes here, so you oughta listen y'know?" I snickered when he tried to sneer at me, he looks like a frazzled kitten trying to be threatening, it's adorable. I reached over and pinched his cheeks, "Aw~ the kitten is all puffed up." I laughed.

He growled and smacked my hand away, "This kitty has claws." He hissed again, rubbing the cheek that I pinched. I held up my hands in the international sign of surrender and jumped on the bed next to the window. I grabbed the covers and rolled myself into a burrito. Yeah I'm that type of sleeper, what of it?

It was like, 10 something pm right now and I'm sleepy. Besides, Dad is going to be home soon and he told us that we need to be asleep by 11. I for one don't mind the curfew, I like my sleep thank you very much! Goodnight world!

A sudden weight got into the bed with me and nudged my shoulder softly. "...You'r not really going to ban me from pancakes are ya'?"

I sighed, "Go to sleep." And don't wake me up again. I felt him moving around a bit, before the lights shut off and he curled up beside me. I smiled, life was good.

OoOoOoO

"How long until we reach Konoha Dad?" I whined, kicking the wall of the wagon lightly while I layed on my back. Madori was sitting farther in the back reading some old ninjutsu scrolls that dad happened to have stored, don't know why since none of use are shinobi. I mean sure we can use fuinjutsu, but that's only for storage and protective purposes, while we can make more destructive seals, neither of us are combat focused. But I can't say the same for Tori-chan, he has zero talent with fuinjutsu (He made a storage seal explode, I mean what the hell man?) but he takes to ninjutsu really well.

He had a decent amount of chakra for a 7 year old, it's still less than me, but hey! Uzumaki superiority! I've been doing my best to fix his malnourishment, and after a week of traveling with us he finally started showing signs of improvement, his body is starting to fill out and he is starting to eat more. He doesn't have nearly as many headaches as before, and his speech is improving, I can actually understand him now! Kid's a fast learner.

"Oi! Stop whining, Konoha is only a few hours away, If ya' bothered to look at the map ya' might know that. Got it?" Did I mention that he picked up my accent? Cause not only did he keep some of his slum slang, but he picked up my american slang too. He sounds hilarious to me, like a mixture of cultures. I think I've been a bad influence on him, Dad thinks otherwise.

"In case you haven't noticed, the maps are currently buried under junk and you know I'm too lazy to bother digging it up, y'know?"

"Kids kids, settle down before y'all get riled up. Tori-chan ("Don't call me that!") is right, ("HA!" "Screw you.") Konoha is only a hour or so away."

"Okay Dad."

"Oi Ra-baka." I smiled sweetly at him, my left eye twitching at his 'loving nickname, "What are we going to do when we get into Konoha? Have you ever been there before?"

I sat up and patted the spot next to where I was laying. The kid set the scrolls into one of the open boxes and crawled over to me before snuggling against my side. I pulled out a map of Konoha and pointed into the market area of the great village. "What we're going to do is book a room at Ornob Inn near the center of the business district. Dad already sent a message ahead of time to rent out a small store near Ruinas' Kimono shop, during our first day here we are going to set up shop. It's going to be called the Yurei's Repair and Pie shop! ( "*Snort*") Yeah, me and Dad aren't too good with names. Anyways, we are going to settle in Konoha for 1 ½ years before leaving for Tetsu. For your second question, I've never actually been to Konoha, sure I have been in Hi no kuni, but never to the Ninja villages."

I spared Tori-chan from the actual details in what exactly me and Dad will do, like work times, sells prices, and other things that will likely fly over his head. Plus, we discussed whether we would leave Madori in the hands of one of Dad's friends, a well set business man who has more than enough to take care of him. It came up when Dad mentioned how fast Madori took to the chakra control lessons and his vast interest in the shinobi lifestyle. I was and still am pretty iffy about letting Madori join the Academy, I know how much he wants to be a shinobi and how much potential he has to become great. Konoha is one of the best places for a young shinobi to grow into his profession, unlike Bloody Kiri or Iwa.

As much as I would like to keep Madori with us, even I can tell that being a civilian isn't for him.

"Ugh…"

"Is something wrong?" I looked down at the boy huddled into my side, a thoughtful frown on my face. I brushed the kid's blue bangs back against his head so I can look at his face more clearly. HIs cool colored eyes peered up at me in confusion, "Uh, Rakka?"

I sighed, "Tell me kid...how much do you want to be a shinobi?"

He shifted away enough that he could look at me eye to eye, "I want to be one more than anything...I want to become strong enough that I can protect myself and the people I care about. I don't want to lose anyone like I lost my family. I don't want to feel so helpless that I can't protect myself anymore."

"Y'know…" I started, "Being a shinobi is really hard… it's an unstable lifestyle, you don't know if you will comeback from a mission or will even wake the next day. You have to kill people who probably faced the same situations as you. You have to fight for your life while taking others. It's a really unforgiving life choice, and once you become one you can't back out. Are you really ready to take an oath that binds your life to the village you so choose to join?"

Madori looked away, some of his bangs falling back in his face, covering his pale skin in a shadow. "I'm willing. I….saw first hand what shinobi do during the war, but I want to be able to fight and protect, I'm willing to make that oath." He faced be with a burning determination in his eyes, "Got it memorized?"

I couldn't stop it, I busted out laughing at the last bit. I definitely shouldn't have told him about Axel, he just had to use that line in the most serious moment.

"Oh my gosh! Why? Whahahahaha! Why that last bit man? Why that last bit man?" I think I'm crying, that or dying whichever comes first. I looked up at Madori with my watery vision, seeing him rubbing his hand against his forehead while grumbling something about, 'Bakas'. Hey! It's not my fault he had to use that line at the worst time imaginable, he should know I'm not a serious person by now.

I coughed a bit, now that all THAT was off my chest. I regarded the brat with a curious look, "Hey Kid, want to think up a better name than Yurei's Repair and Pie?"

He sighed, "Sure. You got anything in mind?"

"Nope!" I popped, grinning from my spot on the floor. When did I get on the floor anyways...?

Part I end

* * *

 **Hope that made somebody smile! Read and Review Loves, Have a nice day and happy holidays!**

 **PS. Any Ideas for a name for the Yurei's shop? Or future fun?**


	2. Chapter 2: 4 years old part II

**I can't believe i'm continuing this, well congratulations me. Sorry if this is really sucky and cringe worthy, but I'm not a very good writer. But that's why I'm writing! To get better! I'm a very emotional detached person, so sorry about the distance in this fic.**

 **Anyways, Regal Disclaimer!**

 **Regal: The following is a fan-based parody. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, and Dragonball GT are all owned by FUNimation, Toei Animation, Fuji Tv, and Akira Toriyama. Please support the official release. *Grins happily* Did I do it right Sunney-Chan? Can I get a cookie now? *Puppy-dog eyes***

 **...No..that's the wrong disclaimer, no cookies for you.**

 **Regal: Awwww….**

 **I don't own Naruto or anything a references that I stuck in here, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Four years old Part II

I looked up at the giant gates in hardly suppressed awe, I can tell the Tori-chan was in the same boat as me, he even brushed his bangs out of his eyes so that he can get a good look at the possible gates to his salvation. Me on the other hand, I was psyched! I was actually looking at the gates of Konohagakure, the village the churned out the most awesome and deadly shinobi in the Ninja world! It also happens to be the place where all of the main villains came from, hopefully I don't run into Snake Face or One eyed geezer, that would be bad, very bad.

Survival rule: Old snakes and War hawks are detrimental to your health and sanity, avoid at all costs or prepared to be turned into an killer doll or a science experiment.

Not that I was that worried about them, I mean, what's the chances that either of them will notice the little civilian girl who happens to be part of an extremely valuable clan, has future knowledge, and makes absolutely wonderful yummy pies? Personally I think I'm safe, I look nothing like an Uzumaki, how the hell would they find out I have future knowledge, and If they like my pies I would be honored. Well If Orochimaru did, I honestly love that creepy bastard, he is an awesome villain. Danzo? I would poison the pie If I wasn't so sure he'd notice it and kill me or Dad.

Yeah though, totally staying away from those creeps.

"Ra-baka! Look!" I glared at the brat out the corner of my eyes before looking at where he was pointing, then I felt my eye twitch. Guess what people? There at the open gates of Konoha stood a certain black haired pale skinned snake man who was currently talking to somebody I don't recognize. I felt Madori nudge me in the side while I cringed, "Doesn't that guy look weird? I can't see it too well but he reminds me of a snake."

I pulled Tori-chan back and closed the curtains before staring at the brat seriously. "Don't go anywhere near that guy. If you see him go the opposite way, and for the love of pie don't talk to him, he is no good, no good at all." He frowned and squinted his eyes at me.

"Why?"

"Because I can't have my little Tori being kidnapped by the pedo-snake."

Madori's eye twitched, before he turned his head away from me. I wonder if he knew what a pedo was, he is pretty smart under all that blue hair. Not that there is anything wrong with blue hair, Grimmjow had blue hair and he was sexy as hell. Not that Madori is sexy, far from it, but maybe when he is older.

OH GUD MAKE IT STOP! BAD THOUGHTS BAD THOUGHTS!

I fell on to the ground and start making dying noises, rubbing at me head in an attempt to get the bad thoughts out. Come on Rakka! Remember your rules! Don't let your thoughts stray to the gutters!

"Gahhh!"

~One break down later~

Now that my little breakdown is over and the bad thoughts are gone, I can focus on the current task at hand, figuring out what the hell was going on after my breakdown.

I opened the curtains again and inspected the outside world in which I was closed of from, forever to look in longing to experi- Okay. Stop. Now. Be serious! You can do it! Focus girl FOCUS!

...shit what was I doing again?

"Looking a little lost Ra-baka, what's up?" I banged my head against the glass. "Rakka?"

I held one of my hands up, "I'm fine… just getting lost in my mind." I heard the brat snort from behind me.

"Ya' have one of those?" Yeah, I'm definitely a bad influence on him.

I'm just going to ignore him for now, I still need too- Oh Dad is already done getting through the gates. Dammit. Madori tugged on my kimono top, "Come on, let's walk outside the wagon, I want to check this place out!" Eh, it's not like I have anything better to do anyways.

Well can't get out if the wagon is still moving, "Dad! Me and Tori-chan are going to walk outside the wagon! Can you stop so we can get out?"

"Sure." Soon enough I felt that jerk that meant that the wagon was slowing down, and once we completely stopped, me and Madori opened the door and he jumped out. But before I followed I made sure to slip my sandals on, who knows what could be lying on the ground out there, a stray tac or broken glass, no thank you I'll pass.

I jumped out of the wagon for the first time since I've entered into the grand village and looked around in awe. I can see people walking back and forth engaging in conversations, I see small kids running around playing and adults idly chattering while watching them. Vendors of all types lined the streets, calling out to people to buy their merchandise. Heck, I can even see some shinobi mingling in the crowds and/or jumping across the rooftop express.

I felt my face split into a giant grin, this village was rocking! It barely feels like it's healing from the end of the second war! All of those fanfictions about konoha being a sunny place in looks was definitely true, now if I was really a 4 year old little girl I would whole heartedly believe that. But I'm not that naive.

"Ra-baka! Come on! Lets check out all the vendors!" Madori tugged on my hand, pulling me over to a stall selling fruit. Well, why not check out the competition? Let's do this!

...wait what? I really need to stop talking to myself…

OoOoOoO

"Come on Kid!"

I lifted the box full of my baking supplies and shoved it into Madori's hands, then picked up another filled with more of my stuff. I set it on the other box I gave him and pushed him towards the empty shop, "Let's hurry so we can play later!"

"Stop pushing me dangit!"

I grinned at the frazzled kitty and picked up another box. Dad dropped us off at the store we rented so me and Madori and start getting the boxes in the building while he went up to the hokage tower to finalize so complicate crap that I don't feel like explaining. I know that sooner or later Dad is going to start teaching me how to instate yourself into a village as a shopkeeper by myself, but until that day comes I'm just going to ignore that responsibility.

So while Dad dealt with that, I was in charge of organizing all of our goods from major to minor so that we can get everything set up easier. Now this usually would be a slower job for me because I'm scatterbrained, but Madori helps immensely with keeping me focused on this task. If I forget something, he usually remembers it, If I get sidetracked, he pushed me back to the main point. Where had this kid been all my life? He makes this so much easier.

I pushed open the glass door with my rump(Dad had the people he rented it from open it before he left.) and walked over to where Madori was setting my boxes down with my other baking supplies. In the back of the store we had already set a majority of Dad's stuff in sections. The sections was; Wood, Tools, Carvings, etc. I had my own stuff separated in their own areas too, that's just the easiest way to do it. We still had to get the personal supplies like our clothes and stuffs to our room at the inn, but after that we're home free! Not really, we'll have to finish cleaning up the store and then start planning on how we're going to set it up. I personally think that I should arrange the display only and let Dad handle the back. This is too much work for little old me.

I followed Madori out the store and helped him get the rest of the stuff out of our wagon. And If you're wondering. Mace and Brace are both still connected to the wagon, and Mace is doing a very good job at scaring people (Mostly civilians) away, I don't blame them from keeping their distance, Mace is terrifying.

"Are you the kids of the new owners?" I heard a voice ask, I paused before I walked into the store and looked over at the lady standing in front of the shop next to ours. She was a tall lady with pinned up black hair wearing a really pretty black kimono with violet sakura petal print and dark velvety trims. Gods I want that kimono! It's gorgeous! I totally need to check out this woman's shop soon.

I smiled up at the lady and nodded, "Yuppers! My Otou-sama owns the shop Onna-Sama!" I chirped, adjusting my grip on the large box I was carrying. In case you're wondering why I'm suddenly saying Otou-sama instead of Dad, Hello I'm a 18 year old American citizen! I don't use japanese honorifics unless I'm trying to annoy people or not make a scene. And since nobody here probably knows what, 'Dad" means anyways. Meh, language is annoying.

"Well aren't you responsibly little boy, I've noticed you and your sister taking those boxes in all by yourselves." Oh God, I couldn't stop the grin from stretching wider, she thinks I'm Dad's son! And that Madori was a little girl or my little sister, that's so backwards!

I puffed out my chest, "I'm really responsibly so I can do things without Otou-sama's help!" The lady chuckled, he voice was light and diggly, like bells! She walked closer to me since she was standing off near her shop and kneeled down to my level and ruffled my thick, tangly hair.

"We'll he is lucky to have such hard working children. I'm Ruina, it's a pleasure to meet you."

I let my grin shrink into a small smile, "I'm Rakka and my brother (*Snort*) is Madori. Don't worry, everyone thinks he is a little girl because of his hair. The pleasure is all mine Ruina-san!" I bowed to my fellow shopkeeper, mentally giggling at the sheepish looked that dominated her pretty face. I heard my store bell jingle as Madori poked his head out, eyes partially covered by a curtain of bangs. I can still see the bottom half of his face between the blue strains, a confused frown that was probably asking why I wasn't bringing in boxes anymore. I still don't understand how he could stand those bangs, covering his eyes and tickling his face.

I hummed out loud, maybe I just have sensitive skin.

"Ra-Baka, stop lollygagging around and help me finish up!"

"Okay okay!" I turned back to the pretty lady and gave a short bow, "It was nice meeting you Ruina-san!" I hurried back to the store to help Madori finish up, barely paying attention when I heard Ruina say something to herself.

It's probably not important to me anyways, not digging into THAT any time soon.

Not that there is anything wrong with it but...never mind. Minding my own business now.

OoOoOoO

Y'know, now would be a great time to know how to tree walk or chakra leap, cause I can't for the life of me reach that damn top shelf!

I glared venomously at the innocent box sitting on the highest shelf of a store, a box that happened to be filled with my notebooks on the various recipes that I'm working on. It also had all of my notes, plans for my side of the business, and other shit I really need about now.

I tossed a glare over to the dark-skinned man who was talking to a finely dressed civilian about becoming a funder for our shop. I just know that dad was the one who got the wise idea to put my much needed stuff on the highest shelf that he KNOWS I can't reach, how do I know it was him? Who else can reach that thing? Not me or Tori-chan for sure.

I would be demanding Dad to get my stuff down if he wasn't doing something that was a tad more important than my stuff. Getting funders and making connections is something we're going to need when we finally open the shop, so I can wait to cuss him out until he was finished. He is lucky I can be mature.

So until he is done, I'm going to focus on the main problem at hand, getting my stuff. I ran my hand against my hair as I thought, does Tori-chan know how to tree walk? I know he has been practicing all those chakra control exercises in those scrolls, but I'm sure I would have noticed him walking on walls or attempting to.

So that means I'm probably going to have to stack and climb, oh goodie, let's see if I can avoid breaking my neck today.

I glanced around the store for anything I can use to get to that damn top shelf, which was actually a wide variety of things since it is a repair shop. I spotted a few crates pushed up against one of the support beams of the shop, I know that they are pretty sturdy and I'm still a lightweight , so I shouldn't break or bend them with my weight. At least I hope.

I went over and started dragging the crates throw the mostly bare store, unless you want to count all of the boxes laying around as decorations, soddy decorations at that. In case you're wondering what our store actually looks like, it is a 30 ft by 60 ft building that is split into two dominant parts, the standard 'store' part and the back where all the baking and repairs go on. The 'store' part is a 30 ft by 30 ft area that has four plain concrete pillars, the tiled floor was plain and a little dusty. Everything was a plain tan color, while a few cream tiles was scattered on the ground. The back was pretty much a standard repair shop, with a small kitchen for all my baking needs.

All in all it looks absolutely terrible! We got a lot of work to do before this place fits my tastes, it needs so much work done to it. I still haven't thought of a scheme for the place, but I'm fancying towards light cyan mixed with lavender and dark green. Somewhat contrasting colors baby!

Anywho, I stacked the smaller crate (Which was half my size) on top of the larger one, then started my ascent up the platforms.

Okay, almost there. I stood on my tippy toes and reached up for the box, straining my child arms as far as they can go. "Come on, so close!" I hissed lightly, trying not to lean too far in either direction to keep from falling and probably doing damage to our merchandise.

I tried for a few more seconds, before giving up with a huff. Okay so this isn't working like I hoped, maybe I should find another solid thing to stack it higher.

Just as I was going to turn around so I can get down, a muscular arm reached above my head and picked my box of the shelf. I whipped around and glared at Dad, "I was going to get it myself…" I pouted, watching as the tall man grinned down at me while holding my box with one hand.

"I could have gotten it if you asked Rakka-chan. No need to risk hurting yourself." He told me, gesturing me to get down with his free hand. I hopped off and brushed the dust that clinged on my trousers.

"I wanted to get it myself, I didn't want to bother you while you're busy with important business stuff."

Dad quirked his lips in amusement, "I'm your Tou-san, you can bug me all you want, you're my daughter so it's perfectly justifiable. Besides," He ruffled my tangly hair lightly, which still made it worse in my opinion, "You being all cute will draw in my associates, your charms does work wonders for our business."

"Ah shucks," I chuckled sheepishly, scratching my cheek lightly, "I know i'm adorable, but it feels nice to have it acknowledged."

"Hey, I acknowledge your cuteness all the time." He said in mock hurt, placing his large calloused hand over his open kimono. Y'know, I mean this in a totally innocent way, but Dad is actually a…(*Shudders*) it almost hurts me physically to say this, a Sexy Bastard. If how half the women react to him since we started to travel is any indication. He has his long dark chocolate tangly hair, dark brown skin, smashing body, and charming personality. He happens to be wearing an outfit very similar to mine, just...less decent. He has a dark red silken kimono top that had the sleeve rolled up and pinned at the shoulders. The kimono was tied loosely at his waist, with it open enough to show off his muscular chest and abs. He wears dark red trousers just like mine and brown strap sandals. He wears a thin golden necklace with a dog tag, he told me that if was a gift from mom on their first date. Overall, Dad was one hell of a looker for a civilian man, It give me hope that I'll become sexy in the future too. Mom was sexy and Dad is sexy, hopefully the genes passed down to me too.

I turned my head away from Dad and flicked my wrist at him, "Your acknowledgement doesn't matter to me because you acknowledge it all the time. Lay off a bit." I brushed past him before pausing, I turned around and smiled up at him.

Survival Rule: If you're trying to get something, make sure you actually get it. Y'know before somebody else does or you have to go back.

Why is that a survival rule? Because there is many MANY ways that can go wrong.

"Can I get my box now?"

OoOoOoO

I leaned against the door frame, watching as Dad used his tools to carve intricate designs into one of the legs of the table he was making. Dad was using his time to start creating the tables we're going to use to furnish the store, since he can make them for much cheaper than paying a different craftsman, and his is better quality too!

I glanced behind me at the empty store section of our shop, it was getting close to night. The sky was just beginning to darken and people started to clear out of the business district. Not to say they are all gone, some shops in the business district stay open into the night, and If night shops are open, there needs to be night shoppers too.

But since we aren't a night shop, I was close to time for me to head to the inn. I didn't really want to leave Dad here to work alone, but he works better at night than I ever could. I can't match his night stamina, and I like sleep very very much.

"Dad, I'll be heading to the inn now, will you be back in time for dinner?"

I saw Dad nod, choosing to focus on his work than to face me. Welp, lets hope I don't get mugged on my way to the inn, I don't have any barrier seals with me.

I stopped at the door, before grimacing. I'd better not use my seals in the open, who knows what type of people would notice, and what they might do if then knew a 4 year old fuinjutsu user was around and foreign. That wouldn't end well for me…

New Rule: Don't show off skills in fuinjutsu at my age, or at all unless necessary. Don't be a show off. That'll get you very bad attention. Of the shinobi kind.

"I'll save you a portion! Later Dad!" I left the store after that, only hearing a low reply before he probably went back to working. I looked around the street, seeing fewer people than I've grown accustomed to in my short time here. "Better hurry," I muttered, ignoring the people still out as I walked towards Ornob Inn, thankfully it isn't that far away from our shop, so we should be there in no time.

I made sure to walk in the middle of the road, just incase anyone wants to go child snatching, and to keep an eye on my surroundings. Sure this is a shinobi village, but lots of things can happen in a shinobi village. "Like snakes biting kids." I whispered to myself as I shuddered, cursed hickeys aren't my thing. And being a civilian is even worse, nobody cept my friends and family would care if I was gone, but then again, I mused, even clan children have been caught by them.

Survival Rule: Stick to the middle of all roads at night, cause you don't want to be snatched by any child snatcher that may be lurking around.

Another rule: Just because you're in a shinobi village doesn't mean you're safe. Never forget that.

I shook my head hard, stopping in front of the Inn we were staying at. Huh, I seem to be getting lost in thought more often than usual. I frowned. I need to stay focused.

I rubbed my hand against my head as I walked into the inn's lobby, "I get lost in thought way too easy, need to break that habit soon." I nodded my head at the receptionist as I passed him, heading to our room on the second floor.

When I finally got to the room we live in, I grinned at the sight of Madori sitting on our shared bed in the lotus position, eyes closed as he concentrated on whatever the heck he was doing. For once he had his blue hair pulled back into a high ponytail, his bangs barred from his face. I noticed the pieces of paper stuck to his forehead, three decent sized paper strips clinging to either side of his face and down the middle. He also had smaller pieces of paper stuck down the length of his arms, man somebody has been putting in work while I was working at the store.

I decide not to bother the training kid, instead I head to the mini kitchen to get started on dinner. I dig into the tiny fridge and pull out the ingredients to make Sukiyaki, Kansai-style, Yum. While I prepared dinner, I let my thought wonder to Madori. Honestly, the kid has impressed me, he already far surpassed me in the art of being all ninja like. He has been pushing himself to catch up with his age group ever since I spotted a few child shinobi going at it on a more public training grounds. The children of the Second and Third war are terrifyingly powerful, which was needed in war times, but they're broken mentally because they were pushed into this life at too young of an age. Children in most families are regarded as little adults, but that is just not true.

I pushed the beef in the pan around absentmindedly, children are children, their brains are not built to take the same strain that adults go through. So many children in this world are mentally damaged, and most of them never heal. I guess that's one of the reasons I was so sceptical on Madori leading the life of a ninja. But honestly, the boy is already cracked, I've been trying my damnedest to heal the small cracks in his fragile mind before it splinters anymore. It's one of the biggest reasons I introduced stories from my world to him. As a child you are easily malleable, your personality can be shaped by the littlest influences, I told him about heros such as Chrom, Sonic, and a few others. I choose these guys because they are mentally sound and have powerful personalities, even with their large flaws. I want Madori to grow into a strong, unbreakable personality, so that he can fight in this world without the dangers of being fragile of mind and easily breakable.

I also told him of broken heros, such as Cloud, and a few others. To show him that even if you are broken beyond compare, you can still hold on and fight with your heart still intact, bleeding and beaten, but intact. I want him to have strong and broken role models, to know differences and similarities of their lives. I really hope he can learn from them. I really do.

I hummed Aerith's theme to myself lightly as I finished preparing the dinner, taking two decent portions for me and Madori. With two chakra extensive children around, and one of them being active in training, we need lots of food and energy to keep up with high metabolism, y'know?

"Madori, come over and get your food!"

The 7 year old peaked open one eye, "I'll be there in a minute."

I scowled at him, "Eat now before the food gets cold, you can go back to training after dinner."

He snorted and opened both of his eyes to stare at me, "You just made it, it isn't going to get cold THAT fast." I gave the cheeky brat my, 'Womanly glare of doom', even if I wasn't a woman now, I still perfected the stare in my last life. He glared back at me for awhile, but after a few seconds of the glare battle he finally gave in and let all the paper drop off of his body.

I grinned in triumph and sat down at the mat, I watched the brat as he sat down next to me and picked up the chopsticks I set out earlier. I can tell just by looking at him that his training had worn him out, unlike me who slumps most of the time, he only slumps when his is exhausted. I'm not a chakra sensor by any means, but I can tell that his chakra was running a little low, just how long was he doing that exercise anyways?

Well it doesn't matter now, he has a good meal in front of him and that is sure to give him all the energy and calories he's going to need.

Speaking of meals, I need to eat!

We ate dinner in silence, Madori was obviously too tired for conversation and I was busy focusing on the food in front of me. I absentmindedly chewed the beef (mmm beef.) and thought about the new recipes I was planing on adding to my menu.

I think Moon pies, one of my favorite snacks in my past life. Two graham cracker cookies with marshmallow filling coated in delicious dark chocolate. Yum. I wasn't worried about the ingredients, chocolate and marshmallows aren't hard to get in a village this big with such good trade routes. Dad managed to get some of the more, exotic goods, scheduled for import. I know a good recipe graham crackers, and I need to experiment with the chocolate coating a bit, hopefully to make it more yummy and to add my own flair.

I took Madori's empty plate and shooed him off to bed, I stacked it on top of my own and took them to the small sink so I can wash them while they're hot. I also need to wrap Dad's dinner for later, knowing him, he is probably going to be working well into the midnight hour. He doesn't do it often, but I tend to worry when he does. But like I mentioned earlier, his body is used to long days and nights working, I can't function with as little sleep as he gets.

Back to my business, I think I should add Chocolate banana pie to the list, I already have the stuff to make it after all, but having so many chocolate based pies might not be the best. I need more variety…

I wiped my hands off on the towel, and stored Dad's dinner in the fridge. With that all done, all I had to do was plan and sleep, it's not like I can talk to Madori, who was curled up on our bed sound asleep. And maybe i've done enough planning too, so sleep is a good option.

I turned off the lights in the room and hurried over to the occupied bed, I slide under the cover on my side and pulled the pillow under with me. I felt Tori-chan shuffle a bit on his side, before crawling over to me under the covers and latching onto my side.

Man this kid likes to cuddle.

OoOoOoO

I walked amongst the crowds as I examined the stores and stands lined up in the business/market district. I ruffled my hair harshly, a small grimace on my face.

"Why the hell am I out here?" I asked myself, letting my hand fall to my neck.

I wasn't sure why I was out in this district, I didn't need anything here and I don't have any ryo on me in the first place. I scoped out any useful stores a few days ago, so I don't need to do so now. Heck, our personal food stores are doing nicely, so I don't need to go shopping for food.

Dad was in his workshop again, In the week that we've been here he has already gotten a few job requests, basic repairs for buildings and a few requests for furniture. I myself haven't done anything except plan the goods for my bakery, since it won't do me any good to use my ingredients if I'm not selling them. I did experiment with new recipes, but I still have to be mindful of my inventory.

Last I saw, Madori was looking for a park to run at. He has been focusing on chakra control for two weeks now, but he hasn't been training physically as much as he needs too. So I decide that he needs to have a training regimen to follow, It's not too extensive or anything, but it's enough to burn him out. After eating breakfast, I have him do stretches in our room. Madori is naturally flexible and children don't have to stretch as much as adults, but I think that pushing him through the more complicated stretches detailed in one of Dad's scrolls is good for increasing his flexibility among other things. After stretches I told him to jog to one of the large parks and run laps, I join him sometimes for running, since it's one of my favorite things to do despite my lazy nature. I, not surprisingly, outlast him when we do laps, but he has proven that he is definitely faster than me.

I used the scrolls Dad collected over the years to pick out things for Madori to learn, it's the only reason that he has been able to slowly catch up with his age group. But I'm a little worried about him training out in the open, unlike me he can afford to be caught training with chakra, but I'm worried about him learning so much without a shinobi trainer. We're in a shinobi village, and even if I don't know everything about them, I do know that they will wonder why a foreign child would know how to do so many exercises but probably won't dig too deeply. But if he starts using actual jutsus and any of the real techniques I've read in the scrolls, then we all will be in deep dodo.

I'll wait until we're back on the road or he joins Konoha officially before he starts on any jutsus. That's my final say on it.

Now, back to the matter at hand, figuring out what to do…

"Oof!"

I slammed into the ground on my side, gritting my teeth to keep from crying out in pain. I heard something groan next to me, probably what ran into me.

I pushed myself on my knees, rubbing my injured side. "Can you learn to watch where you're running? Not everyone can dodge a charging bull!"

"Ow ow ow, sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" The boy, sure sounded like one, said as he scrambled to get on his feet. I stood up and glared halfheartedly at the black haired kid, putting my hands on my hips.

I squinted down at him, "Always pay attention to where you're walking kid, I could've been a trash can or a metal pole. I don't think you want to run into those at that speed."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, before taking a good look at me. "HEY," he shouted indignantly, "Who are you calling a kid! You're a kid too!" He pointed his finger in my face.

I grabbed his hand and pushed it down, "It's rude to point pup. Now why are you running around like a charging bull?"

The 5 year old, he looks like one, stood straight like he was whipped in the back by a ruler. He threw both of his hands up and gripped at his midnight hair. "I'm late for class again!" he shouted, turning on his heel and sprinting off to where I vaguely knew the Academy was.

...huh, I'm pretty sure that was little Obito…

Survival Rule: Don't antagonize future OP psychos with questionable abilities. Not too much anyways, who knows if they will remember later.

I'm so going to bug that kid if I see him again.

OoOoOoO

"A swipe over here, A dash over there!"

I sung to myself, using the brush in my hand to leave lavender streaks on the just dried wall of light cyan. The walls that I was painting was a solid cyan, was, I was currently leaving streaks of lavender paint on it's surface. They best part about doing this is that I can be as messy (It doesn't dribble) as I want and it will still look amazing, I've always held myself as an artist and this is a wonderful way to prove it.

While I was finishing the streaking of the walls, Dad was finishing painting the rest of the store cyan. Madori was looking over all of our new tiles we ordered for the flooring, they were supposed to be cyan with green squares. Hopefully we got the right shipment this time… Anyways, after we finish painting the walls and letting them dry, Dad is going to remove all the old floor tiles in the store section and put up temporary support beams until we get the new pillars.

After we get all the base crap done, then we're going to bring in the tables, chairs, and other decorations. Thankfully we already had the display counter and all that shiz installed, so that is only a matter of stocking it up with desserts.

I stood back and admired my work, "Perfect!"

"All the tiles check out!" I heard Tori-chan shout from his area, I turned on my heel to face him and skipped over to where the blue haired kid was putting the tiles back in the boxes they came in. I glanced down at a box that was laying away from the others, It was sealed shut so I knew that Tori-chan hadn't opened it.

"Hey Kitten, what's this box for?" I bent over and shifted the box around until I could see its label. It's label was to our address...but it didn't say what was in it or where it came from, funny.

Madori frowned and tapped the box with his foot, "I don't know, It was just sitting on top of the other boxes that the tiles came in. I was thinking to just let Oji-san handle it."

"I guess that is smart." I mumbled, shifting the box around lazily. I glanced over at Dad, he wasn't painting anymore from what I could see, he probably finished painting while I looking at the box. He still looked busy though, and that wall over there is due a good lavender splatter.

"Let's get to painting!" I cheered, throwing the hand that had the still wet paintbrush in the hair, and coincidently splattering droplets of lavender on myself. Oops.

I skipped over to the lavender paint can I left over on the wall that's drying and took it over to the now dry cyan wall to start the process of streaking it all over again.

"I wouldn't call that painting, you're just flapping that thing all over the wall," Must. Resist. Dirty. Thoughts."I'd hardly call that artistic talent."

I swung my brush behind me, "You simply do not understand the beauty of art, how the paint leaves visions of scenes not there, and it lasts for as long as it is taken care of." I spoke dramatically, hearing a spudder that I flatly ignore, "Art is an amazing thing, not bound to just one state of being. It exists and many forms an-"

"YOU GOT PAINT ON ME YOU BAKA!" The brat yelled in my ear. I jumped back and glared at him, rubbing my poor ear.

"So? You interrupted my talk about art! You're lucky I don't have puppets or exploding clay!"

Madori stepped up in my space and glared up at me, a large streak of lavender across his face and in some of his hair.

"You. Got. Paint on me!" He griped.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh please, it'll wash off. Don't be such a girl about it Kitten." Y'know...I probably shouldn't antagonized him anymore before he decides to attack me or something. He has been getting stronger, I probably can't overpower him anymore. He is faster too, so my only hope is outlasting the kid using Uzumaki superiority.

"That's it." Oh now he looks scary, probably should run now. I yelped when he charged and dodge out of the way of his tackle, hearing him crash against the wet wall with a 'splack!'. I snickered at the look on his face when he turned away from the wall, He had lavender paint all over his front and one hell of a stank face. "I'm going to kill you."

I busted out laughing at his threat, "Didn't think before you act much? Ahaha!" He was by far the least threatening thing here, screw the face that he CAN hurt me, he looks so cute all frazzled. I stepped back while trying to control my wild laughter, "Gods you're adorable Kitten, just the cutest little thing all trying to be threatening and like."

Madori made a sound that sounded like a cross between a hiss and a howl, and rammed into me. I still couldn't stop laughing, pulling both of my arms over my face while he rained down surprisingly hard punches, I almost think he is really trying to hurt me.

"Help! Help! The kitten is assaulting me!"

-Punch-"OW!"

"Shut up!"

Note to self: Really need to stop pissing people off.

OoOoOoO

I pointedly ignored the ice daggers thrown at me as I hummed cheerfully. Why was I so happy? Because it was almost opening time! The day for Yurei's Repair & Bakery grand opening was near! After spending a whole month in Konoha working on our shop and all the constant building we had to do, It feels great to finally open up our business. Now if our business is successful and we make all of our intended profits, then we will definatly be set to move to Tetsu next year. Dad has already made some decent money assisting with the repairs around the village, and doing a few jobs after the workshop was finished.

I happen to have been given my first job too! Dad told me that one of his associates sent him an order for 20 Sweet Potato pies, 15 Chocolate Strawberry pies, and 8 Raspberry Tarts. The client's name is Toniri Arubgetto, that last name man, and he need these pies for a business party he is holding for his businesses recent boost in standings. It's my first job for the shop and it's pretty damn big for some fancy party, but hopefully they'll be a big hit. My pies are western born, so bringing them into the Eastern world was one of the reasons I'm so successful! If i'm lucky, then they will ask about were Toniri order his pies from and will come to our shop to buy more! Then we can really start making profits!

Oh Dad, I love how you have such amazing connections. You make my life so much easier.

Now the pies need to be made on October 15th, the day of our grand opening. That's 3 days away, and they will be our first official customers. All I can do now is pray it's going to go smoothly, check my inventory, and start baking the pies I'm going to need on top of the pies for the party. Now I'll probably need at least 20 of each pie…

~ A while later ~

I watched Dad wrap the decorative...er..wrap things around the new pillars while Madori carried the finished tables out with the help of a few genin, yeah genin. Dad decided that the final stretch was just too much for him the be the only heavy lifter around, so he hired a team of genin to help. I didn't recognize the genin sent to help us, but that just meant I have more to learn.

I handed Dad the last wrap thingy and took the empty box in the back to place it in the storage for later use. To be honest I really wasn't doing much to help, I finished everything I can do and I don't need to start on the rest of my duties until tomorrow. I could help bring the tables out, but we have plenty of hands for that already. Dad already had the booths and the new counters in. The display cases are all set and dad already placed some barrier seals in hidden locations.

So yeah, I'm all set. I walked over and climbed up on one of the booths, I pulled my legs in and watched the genin set the tables in the pattern we decided. Done with helping them, Madori walked over to my booth and climb onto the other seat, silent as a rock.

"So this is what a D-rank mission is…" Madori muttered to himself, looking at the working genin with a mildly annoyed look. Whether that look is because he is still mad at me or if he was directing it the genin.

I shrugged, "You can't just expect to go on amazing adventures and do epic battles right of the back. Genin are the lowest rank in the shinobi system, they have a lot of room to learn and grow and all. This is where every shinobi starts out."

He sighed, "Okay I get that… but It's kinda lackluster." I smiled as a thought came to my mind, lackluster is good, I remember from the manga that if it isn't lackluster, then it is life threatening and everything goes wrong. I'd probably have 5 heart attacks if I heard that one of Madori's missions went wrong.

I voiced my thoughts, "Lackluster is good, lackluster means you're still alive to get stronger. But genin do go through some shit, a lot of shit. So it isn't as lackluster as you think." Madori brushed his bangs to the side of his head and rested his cheek in his palm.

Speaking of the genin, the ringleader of the trio was talking to Dad about something, a flat look on his face. Am I the only one who notices that all the de facto leaders of genin teams are alway these 'cool' types. He looked pretty young, probably about 10 years old based on looks alone. He had dark blond hair pulled up into a short ponytail, lightly tanned skin, and a small but fit body. I saw earlier that he had green eyes, he also holds himself differently than his teammates. He tends to be more..professional than the other two, he didn't complain about the mission openly or otherwise. He wore a mesh shirt under a dark blue jacket and tan trousers that was taped at the bottom. He wore standard shinobi equipment as far as I can see.

His teammates was talking by one of the tables, the male waving his hand lazily as the girl talked in a hush tone. They were both probably the same age as the leader, and they are all about the same height. The boy was a spiky black-haired brown eyed teen with two silver studs in his ears, he was wearing a fur lined coat and black tapped pants. The girl was wearing a light blue sweater with a dark violet cut off jacket, she had a tan skirt with visible black tights. Her blonde hair was pulled into two small pigtails with little ribbons at the ends. Unlike the two guys, I can clearly see a little spiked whip attached to a belt at her hip.

I never caught their names, but I don't think i'll see them that often during my stay.

"Ra-baka, It's almost time for lunch." I inclined my head back, I did have a Chocolate Banana pie crust in the oven for lunch. I wonder If the genin want to stay for a bite.

"Hmm." I pushed myself off the booth and walked over to the leader and Dad. Dad's eyes flickered to me as I approached the two, the kid glancing down at me. "Hey Tou-san, are the genin staying for lunch?"

Dad shrugged and looked down at the kid, who doesn't even come up to his waist, "Do y'all mind staying for lunch?" I looked past the kid to see a young man sitting at one of the tables behind him (Where the hell did he come from!? Freaking ninjas) and clear his throat.

"Ah, thanks for the offer Yurei-san, I'm sure my students can spare a minutes of their time to enjoy your hospitality." He said cheerfully, this guy was obviously their Jonin sensei. He looked fairly average, which was a good thing for a shinobi. The man had long black hair pulled into a low ponytail and a fine, angular face. He had black eyes and was wearing the standard shinobi attire along with a jonin vest.

The blond spoke up after his sensei's decision, "We don't have time to sit round and do nothing, we need to report our missions completion and finish training." He voiced his thoughts, eyebrows drawn together in some sort of expression (I'm not good at reading people okay?).

The man chuckled and ruffled the kid's hair, causing the boy to glare at him and slap his hand away. Or at least he attempted to, kid's sensei kept an iron grip on his hair. "Oh I think we can spare a few, what do you two think?"

The two who had walked up once they noticed their sensei was here smiled widely, even if the boy's was more sly. The boy spoke up first, "Well Eumo-Sensei, I say we stay, why would I miss a chance to eat free food?"

"Yeah," The girl started, "I haven't ate anything all morning! I can use a break from all that training." She grinned at the irritated blond, "And you're overruled, we do plenty of training and missions non-stop Jono, this won't hurt at all!"

The newly dubbed Jono scoffed and crossed his arms, "You can get a break when we all go home, I don't see why I should waste my time here any longer."

I leaned over to Madori, who walked over to catch what was going on, and whispered lightly into his ear, "Looks like we have a downer here." I couldn't see his expression cause his bangs fell over his face on my side, but I did here a soft huff from him.

"We going to need a lot of plants to fix that one." He whispered back, I bust out in low snickers and nudge the boy in the side.

"The grade A or the grade D?" More immature snickers.

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about squirts?" The spiky haired boy looked down at us curiously.

Me and Madori (I think) shared glances and smiled innocently at the genin. I tilted my head to the side and rocked back on my heels, "Nothing you need to worry about genin-san." I sung, bumping my hip into Madori's side. The boy glanced at me from between his hair and looked at the genin. "Just talk between two little kids."

He stood up straight and side-eyed us, "Of course. Bu-"

A clap sounded from where the others are, "It's decided then," Eumo-sensei smiled brightly from his spot between his students, "We're _all_ staying." We that's the news I've been waiting for! Now I can finally decide what to make for lunch!

I smacked Madori on the back and ran to the kitchen to start cooking, leaving the group of 6 people back in the store section to await my yummy morsels, just not as small.

~ After the food be done cookin' ~

"So your son is the one that does the cooking?" The girl asked, Minda, before shoving a decent amount the side salad I made into her mouth.

Dad smiled proudly, "You bet, I have no talent in cooking and Madori-chan here isn't all too good at it either. So Rakka-chan is the lead chef of this house and a good one at that."

"I'm this awesome because I have loads of experience," I boasted, "Dad can barely make the basics and Tori-chan (*Hissing*) doesn't know what he's doing." I instinctively ducked under the thrown chopstick, before sticking my tongue out at the irritated kitten. Said kitten glared ice kunai at me, before shoving chicken into his mouth, man what is with everyone shoving my food into their mouths. Is it just that good or are they just that hungry…?

Eumo-sensei leaned into the palm of his hand, staring at Dad with a odd gaze. "Yurei-san, how are you enjoying your stay in Konoha so far?"

Dad leaned back on his chair and rubbed his chin with a firm grip, "I can say that I haven't had much time to enjoy my stay here, I work throughout most of the day and don't have much time off. Though I still enjoy the times where I can take the kids to some of the more fun stores and spend time enjoying the beauty that is this village. I hope to take a little more time off once the shop gets integrated with the Markets Circle, so I can spend a little more time with my family. What about you Rakka-chan?" Dad smiled down at me, which also had the effect of everyone staring down at me. Great now i'm the center of attention, not that I mind.

"Konoha is really pretty, the people here are really pretty too. Everyone is nice to me (well mostly) and the atmosphere is great! I really like it here." Too bad we're not staying, but I'm not going to be looking forward to dealing with half the crap that's happening in this village. Personally I don't want to deal with this world at all, but I had plenty of time to get over it. I glanced over at Madori, waiting for his input.

"It's better than where I grew up, and this is the place that I can actually fulfill my dreams at." Well that wasn't detailed, but I guess it makes sense that he is being a little cryptic with his answers around people he doesn't know.

"Good good, I'm glad. Now how did you come about Konoha? Is there a story?" Eumo-sensei asked. Y'know, I'm willing to bet 50 ryo that he is just profiling us, or he is really curious, either or.

Flipping Ninja.

"Well, I've been traveling around for most of my life, give or take 30 years. I can say that I have traveled everywhere in the elemental nations as my time as a merchant. I enjoy traveling the lands, and now that I have kids to share my love of traveling and all of my learned trades with. I have high hopes for these kids." He grinned down at me and Tori-chan, to which I grinned back just as wide. Madori hid behind his bangs and scratched at the hair behind his ears.

"Now as to konoha, I've been to this village plenty of times, but I never stay too long. Many of my valuable contacts live in konoha, and I need to make arrangements and trades with them fairly often."

"Your story telling sucks Tou-san." I interrupted cheerfully, Dad mock glared at me for the input.

The two more open genin laughed, "And no I can't do better, I learned from you after all~"

"Hey kid," Minda spoke up, "What's these?" She held up the cookie shaped wrapper I set in each of their dishes, I recognized it of course. It was the Moon pies I was experimenting with, I had extras laying around in the back so I decided to put them to use.

"I was wondering what those was too," The spiky haired preteen said, holding his own cookie wrapper, "Is it some new type of cookie?"

I nodded, picking up my own moon pie and unwrapping it. I showed the dark chocolate fudge coated cookie pie to them, "This, my friends, is a Moon pie, not to be confused with a moon cake. This is a recipe I've been working on for commercial sell, but I've been having issues deciding If I should take the cake cookie approach, the gram cracker approach, or maybe used some other type of filling instead of marshmallow. These right here are the Cookie cake type, with vanilla flavored marshmallow and cinnamon spiced dark chocolate. Not the healthiest thing around, but I run a bakery, what do you expect? Feel free to dine." I finished, before taking a big bite of the moon pie.

I almost squealed in happiness! It tasted so good and the flavor combinations mixed together so well in my mouth! In case you're wondering, no I didn't test these before hand. I know I know, rules of cooking state to always try your food before serving, but I knew it was going to be good so why not let the customer's experience it along with me? And no I don't think I'm taking advantage of them...I'm just..uh..nevermind.

I LUV SWEETS! …*cough* back to the show.

I watched in anticipation as everyone started unwrapping their own pies, Gods I hope everyone shares my thoughts on it. I kneaded my hands together nervously. Of course, Dad and Madori are the first to try it, since the both trust my cooking enough to know I won't poison them or anything like that. Dad hummed after he swallowed the piece of pie, I knew he would like it, this family loves sweet things. Madori didn't express anything like usual, instead I could tell he liked it based on the fact that was focusing on eating it and nothing else.

"Wow~ These are great!" The kunoichi exclaimed, "Where did you get the idea for this Rakka-san?" The spiky-haired guy, Reyumaru, nodded at her question.

"I haven't seen anything like this around these parts."

Now what to tell them, "I thought it up after I saw something like this at one of the stands we visited in Chōsa Ninmu. I decided to innovate that into this masterpiece. I hope they sell well, I know that is does seem a little foreign like most of my pastries, but mostly everyone I've selled to enjoys them."

"It's good to try something new every once in awhile, " She said, "I think they will sell just fine, especially since we don't have many places that sell this type of food. Other than Uno's Tastery."

Uno's Tastery? The hell is a Tastery? That's something i'll need to look into when I can.

"As great as it tastes, it's not a good part of a shinobi's diet, so hopefully none of you kiddies get to attached to Yurei-chan's pastries. Okay?" The two nodded at Eumo-sensei's words, It looks like everyone's finished eating their lunches, which was a fairly normal platter for a japanese bento. Like onigiri, chicken, noodles, veggies, etc etc. Since everything is done, I'm gonna take everyone's plates to get washed.

While I started that, I noticed Eumo-sensei and Dad talking about something, but since I'm not going to attempt to eavesdrop on a jonin's conversation, i'll do my job like a good little worker.

After all: Survival rule: Don't try to stick your nose where it doesn't belong, especially if it's somebody much much MUCH stronger than you.

OoOoOoO

I slipped the last pie into it's package and set it on top of the last set of packaged pies. I sighed and ran my hand against my hair, I glanced over at window and looked at the darken sky outside. It was early, really early, only about 5 am. If there is one thing I don't like, it was waking up early. Now don't go around thinking I can't deal with being up early, I can, I just hate missing sleep. I love sleeping too much to shorten my time in it's embrace.

Now as to what I was doing, I was finishing packing all of the pies for the big party today, yeah that's right, THE PARTY IS TODAY! Gods I'm going to be run ragged, I need to hurry up.

"The party is at 7:30 am but the pies need to be delivered an hour before." I repeated to myself, trying to get these times imprinted into my head. I picked up the boxed pies and took them out to the wagon, where all the other pies I made for the party was stacked and strapped down. I set the new batch in and closed the wagon up.

The store opens at 9:00 am, so after sticking around to serve at the party, I should have enough time to get back to the store and change into my costume. Me and Madori are going to be dressing up in costumes while advertising our store, but that's for later.

"Humph." Mace glared down at me as if to say, 'Hurry up and mount me so I can go back to lazing around.' He stood hooked up to the wagon like usual, his red eyes staring holes into my head.

I huffed and rolled my eyes, "Okay okay! I'm coming, stop being so impatient Mace." He snorted at me and turned his head away, his mane waving lightly in the small wind blowing around. I opened the door again and recounted the pies, just to be sure I wasn't short on anything. "Okay, let's go."

I climbed into the seat of the wagon (What is that called again?) and picked up Mace's reins, I cracked them lightly, "To the Toniri's….er….his business thingy….uh...nevermind." Pretty sure Mace is rolling his eyes at me now as he started pulling the wagon. Now where is Tonrir-san's place….? Man i'm glad I'm starting early.

The trip to the business was uneventfully, nothing happened other than me catching a glimpse of a Hyuuga clan member talking to one of the stand owners I passed by on my way here. And where was here? Here is currently a large business plaza with three story buildings surrounding the outside and various stands circling the island in the middle. Despite the early hours, I can see a lot of people walking around doing things, like talking to each other or exchanging goods.

I pull Mace up to one of the stands, "Excuse me! But can you tell me which building Toniri-sama is currently based in?" I asked the businessman.

He glanced at me and pointed to the building station in between the two halves of the plaza before walking away, rude man. Must have a lot of stuff to do, like me, like I should be doing right now. "Okay then, thanks…" I shake my head and started for the building the man pointed out, it was, for lack of better words, a pretty normal Konoha building. Just a bit more bigger than the standard civilian business building, for the ones who have buildings.

"Mace, guard the wagon." I called out to the large stallion as I piled the packages onto a smaller pulley wagon, he just huffed at me, so i'll take that as a yes. I tugged the wagon into the building and started by search for Tonrir, asking random employees and civilians if they've seen him or not. This is a time that I really wish I knew what this man looked like, save me a lot of trouble right now. I glanced at a clock set on one of the walls, 6:03 am, I still have plenty of time to find the guy and help out when I can.

It took a few infuriating minutes of searching, asking, and wandering around until I FINALLY found myself standing in front of this man's office, with once killer headache to boot. I knocked on the door and waited for somebody to answer.

"Come in." I heard a deep voice echo from the room, I opened the door and walked into the well furnished office, pulling the pies with me. Behind the office desk and seated in the chair was a middle-aged dirty blonde hair man, dressed in a crisp black sweater with a grey red-rimmed vest buttoned on top. He had his sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows and I couldn't see the rest of his outfit. He glanced up at me from the paper work on his desk and set his pen to the side.

"What business do you have here?" He asked me in that same voice, his dark green eyes regarding me with a bit of curiosity. I set the wagon's handle down on the ground and gave the man a respectful bow.

"I'm Yurei Rakka, the only child of Yurei Kamiaki. I'm here to deliver the pies you requested for your business party, and to act as a volunteer for the party until 8:00 am."

I watched as he folded his hands and rested his chin on them, kinda like a uchiha, heh. "Yurei-san… Yes I was expecting the pies to be delivered at 6:30, but you came early," He looked pleased, even though he sounded otherwise. "That's good, however I didn't expect the one who would be delivering would be the owner's son, let alone a child."

"I'm responsible and I know how to get things done, it's why Otou-sama trust me to handle a good deal of our business. Now where do you want me to take these pies?" I gestured to the pies behind me.

"Actually, Let my assistants take the pies, why don't you stay here for a bit? You said you were volunteering?" Well he is nicer than I thought he would be, even if he has the disposition of a flipping uchiha. The door opened behind me and a few people stood behind me, they we're probably civilians since their chakra levels was awfully low for shinobi, unless they're academy students, but I doubt that. Tonrir glanced up at the group behind me and pointer at the wagon full of pies. "You four, take the pies and place them with the other party desserts, after that tell the stands that we will be starting at 7:20 and to get ready early."

"Hai." I looked over my shoulder and watched the four take my wagon out of the office, the tallest barking extra orders at the other three. Man, I sweatdropped, I really hope I get my wagon back after this…

"Sit down." Holy shit he was trying to talk to me wasn't he? Wait there is a chair in here?

"Hai!" I walked up to the chair and got on it, shuffling a bit in my seat before facing the man. He pulled back from his hands and leaned back onto his fancy black leather chair, y'know….I really want a chair like that! It'll make me feel cool!

"Now tell me what you're good at and I'll see if we have any positions open."

Now what to say what to say…, "I am a good chef, I'm fast, I have good stamina, I'm a good leader, and I have experience doing various job positions, such as; Cleaning, Managing, Advertising, Cooking. I have a little experience crafting, welding, painting, dancing, and providing entertainment. However my biggest skill is my skills as a chef." Why does it feel like I'm doing a job interview instead?

"Good good," he spoke quietly, "Impressive set of skills for a civilian child, so i'll do this. I want you to be stationed as the prime server for you goods. I want you to take care of the distribution of your pies and advertisement, I made a deal with Yurei-san to promote his new business and this is the opportunity to do so. If you are as skilled as you and Yurei-san claim, then I will lend my aid for Yurei's Repair & Bakery. Do you accept?"

…

Well shit.

Part II End

* * *

 **I hope you all enjoyed this and cracked at least one smile! Read & Review and tell, me how I can approve, but I don't trust myself enough to actually put it to good use ;-;.**

 **Thank you everyone for all the nice reviews y'all gave me!**

 **Anyways, Toodles~!**


	3. Chapter 3: 4 years old III

**Hey people!**

 **Not much to say for the opening so let's jump right to it!**

 **Go to my profile for link to my devaint art and drawings of my ocs!**

 **Regal: Suney-chan doesn't own Naruto or any of the references she may make to other media, she only own her oc's. Naruto is owned by** **Masashi Kishimoto, please support the official release.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Four years old III

Well shit, this was unexpected.

I racked my brain for a reason why I got thrown head first into this mess, I mean what the hell? My decisions decide whether we are going to get our biggest investor or not? Me? The irresponsible shatter brained idiot?

Oh God! I'm doomed!

I smacked myself for thinking that, ignoring the looks people was giving me. I can't let myself get down, I have all the skills necessary to see this though, but will that even matter if I get no respect? Get real girl, no adult is going to respect the fact that a 7 year old will be managing anything without an adult there to back them up, I'll have a big target on my forehead and those high class swans will be on my ass like vultures to a fresh carcass. And not the good type either.

I don't know what to do if somebody actually decides to take advantage of my age to rip me off or something, but business is a cut and tumble life, people attack others and compete endlessly for customers, land, goods, reps, and a whole slue of shit that I'm forced to take in consideration.

My best course of action would be to get some sort of adult to watch over me, the presence of at least one grown up works wonders at keeping vultures of my back, as being with Dad proved to me time and time again when we were traveling. I could go to Tonrir and request a bodyguard or something of the sort. It might make me seem weak but to hell with that, I have a good damn reason and he would be a cold hearted bastard to decline. But then again, I glance bitterly at the clock resting on one of the high walls, you can't make it high in the business world without an iron grip and a heart of solid titanium. Crushing a 4 year old's dreams is something any good businessman can do, and I don't doubt that he wouldn't be any less brutal with me than to an adult, he already treats me like I am an adult.

Maybe I shouldn't have played on my skills to much, but what was I going to do? Lie to somebody who probably has been detecting lies longer than both of my lifetimes? Like that will go over well, heh.

"You look constipated." The fuck?

My head shot up at the familiar voice, violet eyes meet a amused black, just centimeters apart, and I squeaked (Squeaked, squealed, whatever you want to call it). "Eumo-san? Why? Just why?" I held my hand over my rapidly beating heart and tried to shake of the shock of a person appearing out of thin air in a completely unexpected area. I mean what the hell is he doing here?

Flipping Ninja.

The black haired man just gave me a sly smile and stood up, "Because it's fun!" He said cheerfully, "And I'm curious as to what the little Paiko was doing all alone far~ away from home."

Good lord this guy is making my inner sadist radar go wild, something about this guy is unnerving, really unnerving. But shinobi are usually messed up anyways so it's probably not THAT rare…

I huffed and let my hand fall to my side, should I even tell him? He probably already knows anyways with some sneaky shinobi crap, eh why not?

"Tonrir-sama just dropped a bomb on me by saying that I have to represent Dad's business at the big party in a hour or so, and that what I do during the damn thing will decide whether he will invest in our business and back us up. Tonrir-sama is the biggest associate we can probably get, so I can't mess this up." Even tugging on my hair isn't helping me get my mind settles anymore, "I have to man my section all by myself, which would be perfectly fine if I wasn't a 4 year old child with no adult supervision who happens to be foreign and the least intimidating thing here. Nobody is probably going to take me seriously, I'm the perfect target to attack, and without somebody grown with me, I have little way to discourage the vultures from tearing me apart."

With that explanation done, I watched Eumo closely to see how he'd react to my words, but for the life of me I can't tell if he was actually even interested. Eumo hummed lightly and scratched his chin, "Well that is quite the predicament isn't it?" He sounded so condescending that I immediately wanted to poke him, cause I can't even dream about punching him without pain to my person.

"I happen to be here on a whim, but that little whim hasn't decided to come around yet, so how about I make a deal?" He smiled down at me and I could swear I felt my skin literally crawl under his gaze. I considered, maybe he would help me somehow, but I also couldn't help but feel like if I accepted I was making a deal with the devil.

Scary much?

I think I sense I a rule coming up soon…

"So? Are you interested?"

I gulped, "Yeah, hit me with your best shot." Curse my big mouth, he somehow looked even more sinister than before, and that damn smile! Is he related to Yachiru Unohana or something? Damn! The man smiled wider and loomed over me with his hands on his hips, he gestured for me to come closer.

Sadist senses going wild! Sadist senses going wild! But I went against my common sense because running away screaming would probably be even worse. I know I shouldn't let him know he is effecting me like this, especially since that will just encourage him to go further. Sadist love when they get a reaction like mine, I would know! I am a Sadist!

...yeah.

He leaned lower and brought his face uncomfortably close to mine, now don't get me wrong, Eumo is good looking, but I am a 4 year old little girl, so yeah, no.

CURSE YOU 22 YEAR OLD MINDSET!

"Listen closely Rakka-chan, I'm going to help you with your party business," He whispered into my ear, I shivered at his breath against my poor ear, "But you are going to help me out after this, a favor." Should I be worried that he was saying this in a incredibly sinister low tone? Y'know, it almost hurts me to ask this but I must.

"What...kind of favor?" He moved from my ear and stared down at me head on, the artificial light reflecting off of his Hitai-ate(That's what it is called right?).

He tilted his head innocently(As if), "Nothing too~ bad, just a little, 'experiment' with my team." Now what could he do with a little civilian child that requires training his team…? I'm drawing the line at asking here. I really do need the help and Eumo won't hurt me THAT much, I hope. I may like causing pain but I hate receiving it. Why did I have to somehow piqued his interest? I took a deep breath and nodded my confirmation. Eumo raised one of his eyebrows at my reaction, as if to say, 'are you going to speak it or not?'

"I agree, after all, your scratch my back I scratch yours, hehe." Why? Just why?

Eumo stood up straight and ruffled my hair, "Well what are you waiting for? The party is starting an hour, and I do believe you need to get ready hmm?"

Oh Shit! He's right! Where did Tonrir say my setup was? The 2nd floor right, he said that all of the things i'll need for my stand is set up with my last name on it. I'll have to set up the rest by myself when I get there...at least I have a shinobi helping me...I hope…

OoOoOoO

"Who's that child?"

"I think it's the foreign shop that just arrived here's representative."

"The Repair shop by the new hunk?"

"Yes that one! Yurei's Repair & Bakery I believe."

"But why send a child?"

"I believe that is Yurei-san's son."

The murmurs continued as I finished setting up stop, trying not to let my thoughts stray to how much I wished I was older then and there, just so that I have a valid excuse to act like a evil business typhone without the fact I am as intimidating as a chihuahua getting in my way.

Oh well, at least Eumo wasn't being a creep anymore, actually he is really helpful. He had no issues helping me set up my stand and getting all of my stuff to the section faster than I ever could have. It wasn't really needed since we had plenty of time, but I don't mind using the extra time to plan anyways.

Currently I was sitting cross legged on the stool behind the stand, staring down at the boxes of pies that wasn't in the fridge. I had 43 pies, 8 Raspberry Tarts, 15 Chocolate Strawberry, and 20 Sweet potato pies, so I should set 5 pre-slice sweet potato pies, 2 whole sweet potato pies, 5 Chocolate strawberry, and 2 Raspberry Tarts out. Thankfully, I sell the Raspberry tarts as small normal sized tarts, pie sized tarts, and last and biggest, pizza sized tarts. I brought all pizza sized tarts, so I'll have enough to serve.

I looked at the stand, which had bottles of chocolate sauce, honey, whipped cream, and all sorts of topping I, thankfully, decided to bring with me when I left it in the cart. So I'll let people use them, at least until I run out.

I let one of my legs fall out of position and felt it swing from the side of the stool, under the stand I have spares of just about everything, which is thanks to Eumo going to fetch it from the shop and inform Dad while he was at it. He told me that Dad would have extra supplies ready a quick shunshin away, just incase. I was grateful that Dad gave me his full support in this, I really feel like I can do this now. Besides I'm Rakka Uzumaki Yurei! I won't let something like this shake me!

I'm hard as stone with a will of titanium! Bring it own world! I'm ready now!

I grinned widely, simultaneously bouncing and spinning in the stool.

...I probably shouldn't be tempting the world like this.

~ 7:30 am Show time! ~

In the minutes I spent waiting for the party to start, it was finally time to start business, and if I thought it was crowded before, believe me I didn't know what I was talking about. People was everywhere on the floor, all these body types, hair styles, and personalities is overwhelming! I can even sense a few shinobi amongst the civilians crowding the building.

Why they would be here I don't know, but whatever! Now time to get to business!

"Forunupai Pies, The pies that will set the heart free! Come and get your very own free samples of our famous pies! For the first time, we are handing out FREE pies, so take advantage of this rare occasion to see what we are all about!" I chanted, waving at the crowds. I spoke loudly so that I can be heard over the loud crowd, so people can notice and come see what I was talking about. When I saw heads turn towards me, I gave them a Uzumaki style grin, beckoning them to come check out my stand. The butterflies in my stomach from before was entirely gone, I was in my element so why should I be nervous? I have a adult to make sure nothing happens now, so I won't be defenseless to the vultures anymore, and with that out of the way there was nothing holding me back from doing what I love!

"The Pies offered here today are three of our pies! These are Chocolate Strawberry, Sweet Potato, and the new Raspberry Tart pie! These are only three of our wide selection, so we have all the variety you may wish for! Come and have a slice, we offer a variety of topping to put on your pies, so don't be afraid to use these resources! Come along!"

Slowly, people start coming in, approaching my stand with interest. I waved them closer and flourished my hand towards my stand. "Hello! Welcome to Yurei's Repair & Bakery stand, I am Yurei Rakka and I'm the representative of the Bakery section of my Otou-san's store. Feel free to sample whatever meets your eye." I walked to one end of my stand and pointed to the stack of papers and fliers, "Please fill out this paper with you thoughts on our pies," I picked up one of the fliers and a card, showing them to the forming crowd, "This is our business card, this has our contact information. While the flier has details on what sort of services my Otou-san provides for his repair service. Feel free to visit our store and enjoy our service."

I handed the card and flier off to some lady then ran behind the stand so that I can start serving them the samples. The first one to step up was a rather large lady dressed in a fine dress, I smiled up at her as I snapped my latex gloves on, "What would you like Joshi-Sama?"

"Well aren't you a polite child, I'd like to try…" She held the 'y' for a little, "This one! This is the Raspberry Tart yes?" I nodded and started to cut her a slice, setting it on the paper plate I had ready with a napkin and chopsticks. Yeah chopsticks…. My little American brain doesn't get it, but I still had plastic spoons out too. I handed the plate to the lady and watched hopefully as she took a bite, some of the others around watching too, probably to judge her reaction.

Come on, come on, come on, Like it! Let's say that I pretty much melted on the inside when she hummed in delight, a blissful expression on her face.

Thank you Pie Gods! I live to bake for another day!

"My, this is simply delightful! I've never had a Tart as delicious as this, the chef is amazing! Do those Business cards have the baker's information?"

I nodded, "You bet they do, I'm glad you enjoyed your sample!" I looked slightly past her to see the ones who came over to my stand murmuring amongst themselves, but I payed no attention to the precise words.

"Well If I may, can I have a slice of Sweet potato and umm…"

"Chocolate Strawberry?" I concluded, she nodded. I quickly made them and let her have her way with the pie. "If you like these so much, be sure to come to our shop to try our other pies or order them from us, I hope to see more in the future! Have a nice day!"

I waved the woman off, as soon as she got the card and left, the others started flooding in to get their own samples. I grinned brightly, this was going so much better than I hoped for, by the end of my work hours I'll probably have scored plenty of recognition for our store.

So I worked hard to take care for so many people, providing any needed information and serving pies like there was no tomorrow. Whenever somebody left her stand with a satisfying experience, they gossiped to other businessmen/women and they came to see me as a result. I was a great cycle with great benefit, especially for me!

Eumo was leaning on the pillar next to my stand, watching over everything with a flat smile. He is unassuming enough that he didn't scare away THAT many potential customers, but the civilians definatly side-eyed him often enough. I sometimes forget that not all civilians are fans of shinobi, and I know that similar applies for the opposite. They are just too different to not clash slightly, it's why you won't see too many civilians that are friends with shinobi, or why civilian and shinobi couples aren't the first choice. I spent enough time with both sides to understand their views, I personally don't give a shit about them.

Screw public opinion!

I snapped out of my thoughts when I realized that...wellllll...I'm out of pies, all 43 of them. Damn!

I grinned, feeling pride swell in my chest, I managed to sell out early! I can't believe how popular my pies were, true it didn't appeal to everyone, but the pros out beat the cons by a landslide! Over the hour I've been serving, I've gotten both complimented and insulted, but not nearly as bad as what could've have been without Mister Sadist to silently scare them away.

I paused while I was cleaning up, I do still have that favor to do for Eumo...hopefully it doesn't do to much damage to poor ol' me. I deserve a pie for my efforts, I really do.

"Eumo-san, can you go and get one Chocolate Strawberry pie from my dad? The store should be open by now, so he might be kinda busy." I didn't have a real reason to have another pie brought her, but I feel like having a slice of my own and I don't want to wait until I get to the Store, because I know that once I get there it's straight to work for me. The shinobi nodded and poofed away without a word, "I need to learn how to do that…" I finished packing the table cloth I just wiped down in the cardboard box. Sometimes people came up to me to ask more about our store, and since I'm no longer busy serving, I can afford to sit back and answer in detail, I missed the opening of my shop, so my plans for that had to be thrown out the window, I had to sigh at that. I'll need to work out my schedule for when I get back to work, I stayed here for too long, but I have obligations. Not my fault this was sprung on me, Uzumaki Luck at it's finest.

"I've heard good things about your performance, Yurei-san." I looked up and smiled at my current employer. I saw him a few times during the party, usually surrounded by a group of business persons discussing crap I was too busy to eavesdrop on. He never payed me any mind, obviously too busy to bother checking up on me, until now at least. Tonrir stopped in front of me, ignoring the still moving party behind him.

I grinned cheekily at him, "Of course you have! I only bring the best!" I boasted, puffing out my chest.

"Yes well, you have done exceptionally well for a child," He started, "Your pastries have gotten a overall good reception, my associates seemed to have enjoyed it and have expressed interest in where and how you learned to make these...foreign dishes… and whether to invest in your shop or not."

I squeaked when a pie was suddenly set in front of me, glaring at the shinobi who just grinned back, is this man determined to give me a heart attack? Actually he would love to see that wouldn't he? I looked back to the businessman, who was watching Eumo with a flat look, which Eumo returned with his sadistic smile. I decided to speak up before it got anymore awkward.

"Ah, Arubgetto-sama, this is the shinobi I asked to guard me during my stay here. I know that since I was a child by myself that I can be a target, without an adult I have little to no protection against…'Vultures' and the likes. Hope this doesn't dissatisfy you in anyway."

The dirty blond broke eye contact (I felt terrified just standing next to them during their stare off.) and glanced down at me with those cold forest green eyes, "No, It is no issue, choosing to get somebody with authority when you now that you are at a disadvantage was a well thought of move. However, I would prefer that you had informed me of this development earlier than this. Though I suppose it doesn't matter now that you are finished working."

I felt like I dodge a bullet when he spoke, whether it was from him not staring down Eumo anymore or the fact that he sorta approved of my actions, I don't know. I glanced down at the delicious smelling pie and back to Tonrir, "Hey Arubgetto-sama, want a slice of my pie? I didn't see you when I was serving, and I think the one who paid for this all deserves a slice, no?" As I said this, I cut a decent slice of my pie and set it carefully on the plate, using a spoon since I like them better than chopsticks. I offered the plate to him, smiling a brightly as I could, which was pretty damn bright if I do say so myself!

The man stared at it a second, before gracefully taking the pie off my hands. I would watch him eat, but that's a tad to creepy and totally Eumo's thing. I cut myself a piece and settled on my stool, popping a spoonful of pie in my mouth. I'm pretty sure the blissful grin on my face told everything I thought about the pie, but If you don't get it then let me explain. The smooth texture of the dark bittersweet chocolate that coated the ripe, sweet strawberries was absolutely divine, the special pie crust made with just a touch of cinnamon add the right hint of flavor that complemented the taste of the filling wonderfully. The pie was heavenly smelling, with sprinkles of powdered sugar added to give that extra flavor to taste.

I'm just too good, oh Rakka you Pie Goddess you. Spoiling me with these amazing pies that I get to enjoy everyday, and allowing me to make other people happy with just a slice. Maybe I should make a pie solely to boost people's moods, but then I'll have to figure out what types of ingredients affect moods. Now then…

"I can see why everyone wouldn't stop talking about your pies after they tried." I looked up to Tonrir and tilted my head, he spoke quietly, loud enough that I can hear him sure, but it was a far cry from that clear, authoritative voice I've only heard him use since now. He wasn't looking at me, instead gazing down at his plate with a small frown, well it sounded like her enjoyed it, but he sure looks gloomy. Must be the way he is or something. I grinned at him when he glanced over at me, Tonrir nodded at something and addressed me, "You're free to go now Yurei-san, I'll look over your performance today and report to your Otou-san. Good day."

He turned and started walking away, disappearing into the crowd. I stared after him and shook my head.

"He's such a nice guy isn't he?" I gave the happy sadist a side eye glance, edging away from him slightly.

OoOoOoO

"Come in! Come in! The number one pies in Konoha resided behind these doors!"

"Immerse yourself in the best pies we have to offer! We have a variety of pies to satisfy any taste, so come in and get one today!"

I waved my bright red fan around as I danced around Madori, who struck a pose.

"Come to Yurei's Repair & Bakery and enjoy yourselves!"

We chanted, dancing in front of our store. I was wearing a fancy multi red colored Kimono/Hakama outfit, it was a decorative maroon trimmed red kimono top with the sleeves rolled up and pin with ruby pins. It was tied with red dragon patterned obi, and the bottom end was tucked into my hakama, which was the same design of my obi and cut off at my feet, which just had red sandals. i can only begin to tell you how fancy I felt dressed like this, I was so giddy!

Madori was dressed exactly like me, except he was in blue and white instead of Red and Maroon, he also had his hair braided back in a complex French braid courtesy of me.. We both had red and blue headbands tied on our foreheads respectively.

"Of course we have Apple pie, the best you can find in the land of Fire!" I smiled up at the woman that had her child tugging on her clothes, pointing at our store. I assured them into the store and started dancing with Madori again, which consisted of twirls, flips, and lots of fan dancing...is there an offical name for that? It wasn't anything too fancy, but I'd like to say that we both dance better than half the population, for sho. It's all about timing and stringing together the right moves with enough inconsistency that it doesn't look like the same thing over and over. Pretty sure that is the gist of dancing.

I closed my fan and used my empty hand to grab Madori's, then we spun together and pulled each other close enough that we can talk, "How much longer do we have to do this?" Madori hissed into my ear quickly, before we broke off again to twirl. We got close again,

"A few more minutes, just need to finish this routine and we're done!" He nodded and we bother circled a a group of kids who was watching us dance for a while, we grabbed the hands of one kid each and spun them around. I grinned at the shorter girl who giggled up at me, "Hey kid, have some time? Hows about you go and get some pie? We have sweet sweet chocolate! And so many sweet fruits from all over the Elemental Nations!" I noticed Madori echoing my song with a taller boy, who looked fairly amused. We let the kids go and flip back to our starting positions.

Y'know, Madori has a good excuse for being able to pull of these flips, since he is training to be a shinobi, but me? The civilian girl? I probably shouldn't be, but If anyone asks, I'm just a really athlete girl who likes to work out. We've been dancing around advertising for about an hour since I got back from the party, Eumo ditched me halfway through, and I don't think I want to know what he is doing. The fact that Madori wasn't getting tired is a good testament to his training, dancing can be a really fun but tiring exercise y'know?

Over the time we've danced, we managed to gather one heck of a crowd, turns out that a lot of the business people from the party managed to relay back to other people through gossip, so we ended up getting loads of people who have heard of our pies coming to try themselves. That, combined with all the curious people who want to try some of our 'foreign' cuisine, has landed us plenty of customers, so much that I really hope that a made enough pies. Hopefully by tomorrow the crowds die down to a smaller groups that come in and out, our small little store can't handle so many people at once!

We decided that we have the best chance of landing customers if we appeal to the kids first, cause then they are going to nag their parents to buy them so pie, this would've worked better if these wasn't a Eastern culture where kids don't get much say or leeway for anything, but it's still producing some good reception.

"We hope you enjoy your day! Thank you!" We waved at the crowd with large (For me atleast) smiles on our faces, a quick bow and Madori quickly ran into the store. I glared at his back as he left me to deal with clean up, again.

"What a wonderful performance."

"That was nice."

"Can we get some pie, Mom?"

I was bombarded with questions, people coming up to me as I thanked the musicians we hired for a job well done and told them that Dad has their pay. I grinned and answered everything that I could, trying to be a friendly as possible to all the people who watched us dance. Thank god for dance lessons, who knew they would come in handy someday. Dealing with people was my repertoire, a trait I gained from Dad in these life, I was never this outspoken and outgoing in my past life, back then I was a quiet, sarcastic girl. Still sarcastic, that will never change.

I slipped into the store and was treated to the sight of Dad rushing around the controlled chaos, grabbing packaged pies and going through all the technical shit at a fast past. Madori was taking orders and calling out numbers, running and dodging around the legs of the people crowding the store.

Dad's eyes flickered over to me when I started making my way through the crowd, "Rakka! Get over here and start taking inventory! We need all hands on deck now!" Damn! We really ARE getting run ragged! Dad rarely booms at me like that, he usually doesn't raise his voice at all.

"Yes Sir!"

This is going to be a tiring day.

Survival Hint: Learn Kage Bushin at some point in your life.

OoOoOoO

"EEH!" I rolled to the right, dodging the fastball that was charging right at my face. "What the hell?" I glared up at my offender, who ever decided to pitch a flipping baseball at me in the middle of a semi empty road. I just glared harder when I saw the annoyingly familiar smiling face grinning at me from one of the rooftops, that dastard even had the nerve to wave at me. He slid off the roof and landed in his ninja way, while I resisted the urge to flip him the bird, the Jounin-sensei took long steps to close the gap between us.

"Now what's with the scary face Paiko-chan? Not happy to see me?" He towered over me with his hands behind his back, doing that creepy Eumo smile he always does.

I gritted my teeth, "I had a long two days, Eumo-san." I hissed in strained politeness, rubbing my hair roughly. Aside from the giant exhaustion opening day was, the next day was just a bad, I was run ragged delivering all of the store's bakery AND repaired goods, signing a crap ton of papers, dealing with difficult customers (I knew being a tiny child was going to be irritating.), removing any evidence that Mace beat up some lowlives that tried to steal him (He is a very violent horse.), baking pies...lots of pies, baking new pies, brainstorming, ...yeah that's about it. "So sorry if I'm a little, irritable today."

Eumo tilted his head to the side, "That sounds nice, now," He dipped down closer, " How about you do that favor you owed me hmm?"

Oh yeah, that… Why today? I groaned aloud, pressing my open palm against my face. Looks like I have THAT to look forward to now, but god dammit if I didn't live up to my stupidly made promises. It would hurt my pride too much to not follow through with helping Eumo, but I swear to everything that if it gets too dangerous I am running away and hiding behind Mace, pride be damned! I'm not lying my life down for one stupid promise, I like living thank you very much!

I can only hope that I don't get too beat up, I scowled up at the smiling jerkass, knowing that I still couldn't afford to back out. "Okay Eumo-san," I sighed wearily, "Let's just get this done and over with."

The man clapped his hands together with a large grin, "Great~ Come here and i'll tell you what I want you to do." He beckoned me closer like one would a dog, just without the constant, "Here boy, here boy." Though how much do you want to bet that he was thinking that? Not that I can read minds. I steeled myself and stepped to the man's side, he wasted no time before resting his hand on my head and the- OH SHIT!

As soon as I felt my feet hit the ground the world spun, I teeter tottered in my spot before falling on my face, well I would've if a strong arm didn't catch me mid-fall. I wrapped my tiny arms around the muscular one, gripping tightly as I tried to regain my balance. I felt bile rise up in my throat before I thought better than to puke on the very scary man and swallowed it down. "Ugh..*cough* the fuck man…" I let my body fall onto the strong legs behind me, shaking off the effects of the shunshin slowly.

I felt Eumo lift his arm, and by association me, higher, probably amused at my reaction. He's lucky I have enough control to not throw up on him. "Now now Paiko-chan, what would your Tou-san think about you using naughty language?" I grunted at him and slid off his arm, I'm feeling a little better now but damn, that was disorienting.

Survival Hint: Teleportation is a bitch.

Now that I'm feeling better, I glanced around to figure out where the hell I was, the entire area around me consisted of a well damaged clearing with hashirama trees (I think that's what It's called.), wooden stakes jammed into the ground, and a clear view of a small body of water. I turned to look up at Eumo who was watching me curiously, "Is this a Training grounds Eumo-san? Why are we here?" It probably is obvious, it has something to do with training (Hopefully), but what to do with training. I doubt he is training me, and how the hell would I help him train? Y'know the Jounin of all people?

His hand snaked up his side too his hip, "I need you to be the victim. My team is in dire need of learning how to protect a client and even save them if necessary, but they won't get the full effect of the training when they know that their client is a fully trained shinobi who can easily protect themselves."

I think I get it now, "So you need somebody who CAN'T protect themselves so that the your genin really have to try to protect them right?"

He nodded, "Precisely Paiko-chan~"

I can just imagine how much pain I'm going to be in...no offence to the genin brats, but they probably don't have the skills to fend of a jounin level opponent while protecting a client yet, bandits yes, maybe a few chunin level nin maybe. But I guess I can't judge them too lightly, I mused, Team 7 dealt with more than a few jounin level shinobi, but then again...they have a heavy dose of plot armor protecting them. I scrunched up my face, but it was really inevitable.

"Okay then, as long as you don't hurt me too much okay, I can't protect myself that well… but then again that's why I'm here." I scratched the back of my neck.

"Aw, are you doubting my cute little students?" Wasn't like I was hiding my doubt, I made my feelings clear on my face to show how much I detested this. Eumo wagged his finger at me, "Now now Paiko-chan~ My little genin aren't that new to the job, they might only let you get a _little_ hurt, but you won't be _too_ badly injured." Was that supposed to be reassuring, cause that just made that pit of dread sleeping in my stomach punch me a little harder in the gut. He must have read my face because he started chuckling at me. The man pat my head, "I've seen your reaction times boy, you can dodge projectiles pretty well for a civilian. You may have some potential in dodging any stray rocks I might throw if you pay attention."

He WAS there where Tori-chan threw that chopstick all ninja like, damn. It isn't much of a secret that Madori has a lot of potential as a shinobi, even in the short amount of time he has been training, the kid has been advancing a lot faster then expected. That factors into the reason why Madori can pitch a chopstick with the accuracy of a genin hopeful, hell, it probably explains how I can dodge it if we live together. But I still need to hide that better.

"I suppose… so what's the plan, anything specific you want me to do?"

"Not particularly, You just need to be the helpless 'damsel in distress' while my genin protect you from me. So just sit tight right~ here while I set up more traps~ Be back in a jiffy!" He wiggled his fingers at me and jumped off into the training grounds, I sighed and plopped down on the ground, since I probably have a bit of waiting to do.

~ Minutes later ~

You know the sky is looking awfully blue today, it was this nice light blue, like a soft baby blanket blue like the one Dad used to wrap me in like a burrito. I wonder if that's why I like being wrapped up so much, it's nice and comfy, warm and snug, just the way this gal likes it. It might be because i'm a child in body, But I loved doing that just as much as a teeneager in my last life. Now back to the sky, it was a clear baby blanket blue, with only the occasional fluffy white cloud squiggling through the sky like a baby snake...why is that cloud squiggling? No seriously why is that cloud flying into the sky like a snake? Clouds aren't supposed to do that…

Maybe i'm just imagining things, a lifted my hand to my cheek and scratched it with the tip of my nail gently, before pulling back and smacking myself so hard that I practically slammed myself into the ground and GODS THAT HURT MORE THAN IT SHOULD HAVE! I held my throbbing cheek and massaged it lightly to try and ease the pain, "That was a stupid move Rakka, you dumbass." I scolded myself, choosing to roll onto my back instead of getting up from the ground I knocked myself against. I peered up into the sky with watery eyes, scanning the blue mass for any signs of the flying snake cloud.

It wasn't in the spot I last saw it, so odds are that I was just hallucinating from some weird shit, though I don't remember eating anything odd lately besides pie and a dried pear.

I rubbed my head harshly, scratching as deep as I can through my rat's nest hair to reach my very itchy scalp. Ugh, maybe I should just braid my hair and be done with it, or at least shave it to a crew cut or something, I will never understand how Dad keeps his hair as long as it is while it is a tangly and unmanageable as mine. Maybe I should ask Dad as soon as I get home if he isn't busy.

My muse was broken when I heard the sound of arguing coming from somewhere behind the treeline, I lifted my upper body with my elbows and looked towards the sound curiously. It wasn't Eumo since he was currently off being evil in the trees, so the next thought is obviously his genin brats, since this IS their training grounds. At least I think it's this teams training grounds...does Senseis just rent out training grounds for their teams? Or do they just claim the nearest area and kick anyone else off..huh I need to ask someone that soon. I refocused on the people getting closer to the clearing, I rolled onto my stomach and crossed my arms under my chin, twitching at the grass scraping my arms. It wasn't particularly soft grass, but it's not hard enough to be dry and dead grass, still uncomfortable as hell though.

"I still say that a shinobi should be proficient enough in everything that they can take any type of mission, you get more experience from different types of missions than just taking missions you specialize in over and over, it makes you into a better, more rounded shinobi."

Okay now that I can hear them a little more clearly, I recognize the voices better, I'm pretty sure that Reyumaru was the one talking, to who? Beats me.

"A shinobi should only focus on the skill they best excel in, I can see why you think being well rounded is an essential goal, but the truth is that being a well rounded shinobi ultimately makes you weaker than the specified elite. With so much of your skills spread thin around multiple skill sets, odds will be that you will not master any of those skills. This is a problem because being a "Jack of all trades," and "Master of none" means that If you were to do combat with any opponent with superior abilities, everything that you've learned will not be strong enough to defeat them. It's best that you pick something you excel at the most and train in it until you're a master of your art."

And that was Mr. Stoic himself, voice calm and tight, controlled compared to the semi-lazy drawl the his teammate spoke with.

"Generalizing gives you more options to use in battle, even if you're fighting a powerful enemy that has a mastered specialization, If you have multiple skills that you're proficient in, then the chance of you having a skill that can counter them is extremely high. Sometimes you don't have to be the best in that skill, but if you combine it with other skills you have learned, you can boost it's power and gain a powerful advantage over any opponent."

For a bunch of kids, they sure are having one serious debate, not an argument since they aren't screaming and cutting each other off every few seconds. They are actually being civilized little munchkins against what I really thought genin would treat each other.

"I see your point Reyumaru, but having the skills of an expert makes you the first choice to missions where somebody with that skill is needed. People will always put their trust in a master of an art over somebody who just studied it in passing, they want somebody who knows exactly what they're doing. Being specialized opens more opportunities to bring in more income, and you will always be the first chosen. Being generalized means you're a second thought, you will only be chosen if they have nobody else to do the job."

"I know that Jono, but you'd be surprised how often the generalized person is the one picked. Most specialists are called out to the field first yes, but because they are usually out on jobs, that leaves nobody else but the general guy to do the job. And while they get the first pick in their expertise, we get the second pick in multiple areas in different sections. It makes you more valuable to keep around, because if something that the specialist can't do arises, then use general guys can do it instead. Most specialists are useless out of their art, and while they just stand around not knowing what to do, we are doing whatever job comes our way."

"Hey! Who's that?" Oh there is Minda, I was starting to wonder where she was during the boy's debate. I lifted my arm from where it was interlocked between my other, and waved at the three kids entering the open area. The blonde girl squinted at me, the two boys behind her regarding me with a curious gaze (Guess who) and a cold glare (Again, Guess who).

"Aye, sup mates?"

Minda's eyes widened in recognition before she grinned and waved back, "Rakka-san! It's good to see you!" she walked over to my spot on the grass and crouched down, elbows on her knees and her arms lazily crossed over each other. "What are you doing here alone? Shouldn't you be with your Tou-san?" she inquired, tilting her head.

Jono, of course, felt the need to put his input, "Children shouldn't be in the training grounds (Feh, you're a kid too.), and civilians aren't allowed here. So why is a Civilian child in our training grounds?" The dark blond haired boy glared down at me suspiciously, crossing his arms over his chest. I return his glare with a flat look, cause this kid was seriously thinking I was a spy or something, me of all people!? I'm not even threatening nor do I have any way of taking advantage of anyone...okay that's a lie, probably plenty of ways I could be a bad guy, but still!

Flipping Ninja.

I maneuvered myself so that I was sitting instead of lying on the ground, bracing my hands on the grass between my criss crossed legs and slouching forward. "Eh, y'all sensei picked me up this morning and dropped me here, y'know? So I got a reason to be here." For now anyways, I thought to myself quietly.

"So Eumo-sensei brought you here?" That's what I just said, but I nodded wisely, "I wonder why…" she pressed her pointer finger against her chin, the signature look of thoughtfulness on her face.

Why do I feel a sudden spike of danger?

"Out the way!" I yelped when Jono snatched me by the back of my black sweater (He's gonna stretch it! I just got this thing dammit!) and yanked me out of the way of a speeding kunai that was clearly trying to pierce me right in my back. I choked and pulled at the neck of my sweater, trying to stop it from cutting into my neck. The hand on my sweater let go and I rubbed my neck lightly as the de facto leader pulled out a kunai and scanned the treeline with narrowed eyes.

Minda grabbed my arm gently and pulled me up from the ground, then I was pushed slightly behind her. Reyumaru was also battle ready, like Jono, he had a kunai gripped in his hand. Note this was all in like, a second.

Current status: WHY!?

Second status: I'm not liking all of this manhandling.

Third status: WHY!? CURSE YOU EUMO!

Overall? I was now slightly joyed by the fact that the Genin was able to save me from that hit, but Gods they're rough. Well Jono is at least. No-EHHHHHH!

I was roughly (again!) grabbed by a large hand, and chucked into the sky like a ragdoll. I grit my teeth and looked down while I was currently experiencing the worst way to fly, there, Eumo could be seen knocking each of his students into trees with a few good, well placed kicks. At the same time as the kids slammed into the trees, gravity started doing it's job and I fell right down into the waiting arms of the jounin, who was wearing one of the biggest shiteating grins i've seen him make.

I frowned up at Eumo from my spot in his arms, clutching both of my hands to my sweater as he chuckled at the groaning (Well two was) kids, each getting back to their feet and giving their sensei looks that he probably is getting a lot of enjoyment out of.

"Hello~ My cute little genins, and welcome to clientele protection 101, I'm your host, Eumo-sensei, and this is my co-host, Paiko-chan." He held me out at arm's length, showing me off as one would a baby, It was pretty comfortably really. "Today I will be your enemy~ And You need to protect little Paiko-chan from my attacks until the timer runs out." He transferred me to one arm and set his hand on a wooden stake with a clock...pretty sure it's a clock, was. He tapped on it, the big red numbers reading 7:55 am. He gave them a smaller smile, "And I'm proud to say that you have already failed your test~" He sung.

"WHAT! I didn't even know it was a test, that's not fair Seeeeennseeiii!" The kunoichi whined, pulling at the edge her skirt with a pout.

Reyumaru scratched the back of his neck, "Eh, we was supposed to protect the squirt from you? Could've at least given us a warning or something…"

Jono tossed glare over at his less serious teammates, "Stop being a bunch of babies, No enemy shinobi is going to give us a warning that he is going to attack us, we just have to be ready to defend and defeat at the flick of a wrist." He barked, looking back at us with a foul expression, "I'm going to assume that we get a second attempt, since this wouldn't be very productive if you just sprung it on us out of nowhere and left before you can tell us what we did wrong."

"Jono-chan is correct~ You all will get a second chance at this, don't waste it. When I give the signal, you need to come save little Paiko-chan from my missing-nin grasp~ If you can't save her in under 6 minutes, you all fail immediately."

Minda frowned thoughtfully, then finally spoke up after a moment of silence, "But Sensei… what if we end up hurting Rakka-san during the fight, isn't that a little too dangerous for a civilian child? She can't do anything to protect herself."

"I think that's the point Minda-chan," Reyumaru obviously saw the point, now hopefully they don't actually fry me during the upcoming battle.

"Reyu-chan has it~ Try not to get the little one killed~ It will be on you~" I sweatdropped at the way he said that, as if it was the best possible outcome. Bring on the creepiness why don't you, yesh. I tapped on the jounin's chest lightly,

"Do any of you know medical jutsu?" I spoke quietly (Shocker) so that only he could hear. His eyes flickered down at me briefly before he his grin widened.

"Start." Ah shit.

Nothing happened for a breath, Eumo was standing in the middle of the clearing, smile on his face and my clutched in his arms, looking back at the kids nervously. The genin was tense, weapons drawn and bodies ready to launch themselves at a moment's notice. As if a hidden gun had shot off, the kids instantly disappear into the trees, leaving me and the jounin alone in the clearing.

They must have ran off to figure out a plan of attack before making their move, a smart decision consider the alternative was to just charge Eumo, which would be a retarded move. Three genin against once powerful Jounin was just suicide, and since they obviously aren't newbies, they won't make the same mistakes Team 7 made during the main era. But they needed to act fast, they only have 6 minutes to get me or they fail, 6 minutes is not a lot of time to rescue somebody, so they better get a move on so I can go home.

"...I kinda hope they fall into one of the traps….It would be funny."

"I think I like you."

OoOoOoO

Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for the brats to make their move, while Eumo was sitting with his legs crossed on the stake with me leaning back onto his stomach on his lap (I get comfortable easy.), tossing a kunai lazily in his free hand (The other was firmly gripping my waist.). I messed with the edge of his jacket, tugging at the fabric with the tips of my nails, I was undeniably bored, sure the training started a minute ago, but all the waiting and suspense lost it's hold on me a few seconds in, and now I seriously nee- AH SHIT!

At the flick of a wrist, Eumo sensei had redirected the kunai thrown at us with only one of his own (So….Coooooool!), sending the knives flying in every direction except our own. I only had a second to cling to Eumo's arm before the world spun, the jounin twisted in his spot and pushed himself in a single hand stand, countering the two attacks by his male genin and sending Reyumaru flying with a solid kick. I winced inwardly at the loud TWACK that sounded from the hit, Eumo wasn't pulling any strength it seems, or he was and he was just that strong.

Jono flipped back and launched himself at the jounin with a kick, Eumo twisted his longer legs and kicked the the side of the blondes foot, throwing the genin's balance completely off. The black haired man followed up with a kick to the blond's back before he could right himself, sending Jono flying into the ground. Eumo contorted his body with a kick, spinning the both of us back into a crouching position on the stake.

This man is flexible…

Note that this all happened in about 2 seconds and GODS these guys are fast in real life! I mean, I knew and saw that shinobi battles move much faster than the anime/manga made them seem, but I never knew how much faster until I'm right in the thick of it.

Eumo chuckled under his breath, resting his free elbow on his knee and leaning his cheek into is palm, looking two genin who attacked him with amusement. It only lasted for a moment before the boys were on us again. Clinging to Eumo's arm for dear life was just about the only thing I could do, bearing with all the twisting and world spinning that came with being attached to a very flexible jounin who is easily fending off his brats without moving from his spot on the wooden stake. I was kinda surprised that he wasn't moving around more, like jumping around and putting more effort into fighting the kids.

But they wouldn't give him much of a challenge would they? Maybe It's a handicap to make this more interesting.

Eumo grabbed the blacked haired brat's wrist and swung the kid's body like a chain mace at Jono, who ducked under his teammate and lashed out with a punch that Eumo jammed his forearm into his fist, a cring worthy cracking sound came from the kids hand, causing the him to cry out in pain and snatch his hand away. With this distraction, he slammed Reyumaru into Jono's side and sent both males flying.

"Ouch." I muttered as I eyed the kids, Reyumaru helping Jono up from the ground. "A little rough aren't ya?" It looks like he broke or sprained Jono's wrist, with the way the blonde was holding it with a grimace. Eumo tucked on of his legs under him and let the other dangle off the side, he chuckled again.

"They can handle a little pain~" He leaned under two kunai and pushed himself off of the stake, my eyes widened when it was engulfed in fire, "Jutsu so soon?" He landed with me a few feet away, as soon as his sandaled feet touched the ground, a peach hand burst out of the ground and grabbed the jounin's ankle.

"Oh~?" As soon as the hand made contact with his ankle, vines burst from out the ground and constricted themselves against the man's legs, snaking and tangling it's way up his body.

"Katon!" I whipped my head towards the voice and felt my stomach drop at the fireball that was zooming in on us. Eumo looked down and frowned thoughtfully, moving his left foot experimentally. The grip on my side tightened as the only warning, before I was chucked up into the sky.

"WAAH!" I flailed my arms wildly to try to gain at least a little feeling of control, hearing the impact of the fireball underneath me. Smoke immediately bellowed out from the point of impact, covering that area in thick white smoke. I managed to spot Minda popping out of the ground a few feet away before I started falling back to the ground.

I've been doing a lot of falling lately.

As soon as I felt something I really hope was a person snatch me from the air, I twisted into the grip and clung to them as tightly as I can, making sure not to dig my painful child nails too deep into them, y'know so they don't drop me? The kid (Definitely a kid) flipped down and landed on the ground momentarily, before launching himself into the trees.

I glanced up from burying my face in the shirt to take in the fast moving surroundings, Reyumaru landed on a thick tree branch and looked around before glancing down at me.

"You have one hell of a grip squirt, you hurt anywhere?" He asked me, I gave myself a quick checkover;

Limbs? Attached.

Any broken bones? No.

Sore anywhere? My neck and side is sore, so much grabbing.

Head? Spinning from being twisted every which way because of Eumo's flexible sexy se- OKAY STOP BRAIN!

Overall? I'm good.

"I'm doing fine, a little tousled. I feel like a Rugby ball." He eyed me strange, probably the rugby comment, I don't think they have rugby here actually….shame.

"That's good. Now try not to breathe too loudly, Eumo-sensei has the ears of a bat." What am I not supposed to breath then? Eumo is going to catch us anyways, so I doubt that will matter. He must have read my mind, or my looks either one, cause he gave me a crooked smile, "It's the truth squirt, now come on." He tightened his grip on me and then we were off.

After a minute or so of jumping from tree to tree like the ninjas we are (PFFFFT), we landed in a small clearing, where Jono and Minda were both crouched under a low overhanging tree branch. The genin all huddled up together, Reyumaru set me down beside Jono and it was silent for a moment.

I took this chance to examine the kids a little closer, first was that Jono was rubbing his wrist lightly, the skin around it was a light red color and a visible bump was protruding from his skin. He wasn't screaming in pain or anything, besides when it was hit, so odds are that is was just sprained and not broken. Reyumaru slide over to Jono's side and took his wrist in his hands, the spiky haired kid wrapped his hands completely around the sprained wrist and pressed them together.

Jono gasped lightly, bowing his head with a tight frown as the other forced his bones back in place, Reyu's hands started glowing with a bright green chakra, healing chakra by the looks of it.

So Reyu was a medic-nin eh? I guess that explains why he asked if I was injured at all, since he could take care of that. Y'know having a medic-nin on the squad is a smart idea, they would need one to survive half the crap Eumo probably puts them through. But why would they send the healer out to fight Eumo first? I'd expect him to stay hidden like Minda had, but that might be stereotyping.

"Okay, now to carry out the rest of the plan." It was Minda who spoke up, the other two genin nodded. "Now then, Eumo-sensei probably booby trapped this entire forest with nasty little traps, like he enjoys so much. So we need to be extra careful moving around the grounds, I'll keep an eye out for any traps and see If I can set any of my own. I'll try to keep my senses open so that Sensei can't get the drop on us. Jono will be the main attacker when we engage Sensei since he has the best taijutsu out of all of us. Reyumaru, You will guard Rakka-san, Okay?"

The dark haired kid nodded, "I'll do my best."

"In the case that Jono or me take too much damage, we will try to escape as our main priority so that you have time to get us back into fight condition. Any questions?"

Jono stood up, testing his wrist by twisting it slightly and pressing two fingers against at different spots. "No, I'm ready to depart."

"Same here."

Minda grinned and pumped her fist, "All right! Operation: Protect Rakka-san is a go!"

"Hello my little genin~ Finished plotting my demise?"

"SHIT"

Instantly, the ground underneath us opened up and swallowed us, sending all of us tumbling into a pitfall. Reyumaru grabbed me roughly and sank his hand into the side of the pitfall, the other two followed by sticking the the walls of the hole.

Man, I sweatdropped, This guy really doesn't pull any punches. I wonder how he got the pitfall to support us...urk. I clung to Reyu's side as he leaped out of the hole, following after his teammates. While we was flying through the air, I spotted Eumo smiling up at us from a tree branch, he lifted a hand up and waved at me. Of course I waved back, it's only polite.

The genin was quick in making their escape, regrouping together as they flew through the trees. Minda bounced back so that she was next to Reyu, "Sensei always ruins my plans…" She griped, running her hand around her ponytail base ribbons. "Never can catch a break with him."

Reymaru snorted, before using his free hand to wave her off, "Aren't you supposed to be checking for traps?"

"Oh yeah." Minda vanished with a yelp, "Ah!" I looked over Reyu's shoulder to see the girl hanging off the branch by her foot, Reyumaru stopped and looked back to see what happened. After a little struggling, she had righted herself and was now bent over with her hands clutching her calf, using her other leg as leverage to try and yank her foot out of some….yellow stuff?

Reyumaru turned and jumped to a branch a little ways away from the one Minda was stuck too. "Really Minda-chan? Our trap detector fell into a trap already?" He crossed his arms, Minda glared at the kid, a rosy blush on her face.

"S-shut up! I just wasn't paying attention is all! This won't happen again!" She pulled at her leg again with a pained grimace, after getting her foot yanked at the speed she was running, I wouldn't be surprised if she twisted something.

"You couldn't find the pitfall trap even though it was right under you, I think you having an off day. You might even fall into one of your own traps." The kid snickered at the flustered kunoichi as she stabbed at the yellow gunk carefully, prying it's oozy grasp if her foot. After watching her struggle for a moment, Jono landed above us and glared down at the lolligaggers.

"Reyumaru stop joking around and help her, we need to go before Eumo-sensei catches up!"

"Yeah yeah." Reyumaru adjusted his grip on me and carefully made his way to the branch Minda was resting on, stepping around the small batches of yellow gunk to the girl crouching while holding her ankle. Minda frowned up at Reyumaru and gave him a stank look, "Don't give me that look." he scoffed, I scrambled carefully onto his back so that he doesn't have a child in his way. He did what he did for Jono's wrist, taking the red and slightly twisted foot in his hands, "Alright now…" He gripped the appendage hard and set it back with a quick snap, Minda hissed while he healed her ankle, rubbing it lightly when he pulled away.

"Lets not get anymore injures okay?" Minda stood up and tested her foot, before jumping up to where Jono was looking out.

"I don't think anyone can promise that, especially with our job."

Reyu sighed and bounced me up higher on his waist, "True, now let's go." The team, now free of obstacles and the tracker actually doing her job, the group speed across the treetops, to where? Beats me, I didn't know much about what they are supposed to do with me other than protect me.

Actually, are they supposed to protect me from Eumo for a set amount of time? And if they only need to protect me, then why are we moving? Won't that just catch Eumo's attention? Are they taking me somewhere specific? I felt my brows draw together, I scowled into Reyu's back, wishing that I really did ask Eumo the specifics when I could. I loosened my death grip on his shoulders to tap on his collar bone. "Hey."

"Yeah squirt?"

"Can you tell me what you're supposed to do with me, I mean I know that y'all need to protect me and such, but is their any other objective like getting me to a rendezvous point or something else?"

He hummed, dipping his head forward to duck under a low branch, "Eumo-sensei typically has a 'safe point' somewhere on the training grounds."

I looked at the back of his head curiously, "A 'safe point'? Is that like a place where he won't attack or trap your or something?"

He nodded, "Yeah, If we can find the safe point and get you to it, then Eumo-sensei won't be able to get to you, once we do that then we pretty much completed our mission."

Well that seems simple enough, that's what I would've thought If I was a naive dumbass with no experience with sadistic bastards. I knew for a fact that he trapped these training grounds well, and if there was a safe point, then the paths leading up to it are 100% likely to be heavily trapped, he probably is already there, in some sort of hiding spot plotting, waiting for his foolish little genin to cross his path so he can blow them to smithereens and laugh his lungs out. Well, that's what it seems like he'd do.

Reyu seems to share my settlement, "It's probably going to be hell trying to get in, he always makes sure to set the most flustrating traps when we get close to our goal, by the time you get in it we all will probably be injured and exhausted." he grumbled, "I'll have a load of healing I'll have to do after this." He groaned. He must hate having to deal with everyone's injuries so often, already two sprains and we're only like, 5 minutes in. I wonder how often Eumo seriously damages his students...probably often since they don't seem to be bothered by the brief beat down he gave the two boys, and they seem used to his trapping antics too. Reyu must have a bit of experience with healing by now with how often he probably has to heal this team.

Y'know, I wonder if Eumo knows medical ninjutsu, he probably does since he doesn't seem like the guy to hold back on beating up his students.

OoOoOoO

I followed as closely behind Reyu as I could, only one of my hands clutching his coat as I walked beside the taller kid. I could only barely see Minda up in the trees, focusing entirely on picking out and going around Eumo's various traps, Jono was walking behind us, kunai drawn and a tense frown on his face. He was definitely ready for a confrontation, though considering that Eumo can hold two of his genin off so easily with only his legs without moving from his spot, he would have no trouble taking on another two with full mobility.

The reason why we are walking on the ground instead of tree hopping, it's because there was an influx of traps appearing in the trees that we almost kept falling into. After Jono almost fell into a sneakily placed trap consisting of a practically invisible gap in the tree path leading to a sticky pitfall, we all decide that there was a better chance on the ground then in the treetops. Only reason Minda is up there is to make sure that there isn't in traps hidden in the trees that are activated by ground, cause we've found one of those already. A trap that activated when I stepped on a rock, you should've saw the expression on our faces when a thick block of... some translucent honey stuff fell on Jono (Poor guy) from behind us, since we managed to move out of the blocks path at the last moment. The uptight kid was completely stuck inside the block and it took a while to dig him out, he now smells like honey, glue, and something else I couldn't discern.

"Stop, get up here and follow me so I can lead you out of...this." I took this as my cue to wrap my arms around Reyu as tightly as I can, just in time for him to jump 10 feet in the air (Flipping ninja physics ) and land next to Minda, "There is one hell of a trap collection up ahead, I need you two to follow behind me as closely as you can while we enter this dangerzone, got it." We nodded, "Good, now let's go."

It wasn't that much on an issue to get through the dangerzone like you might think, despite her fall outs earlier, she did extremely well with maneuvering us safely through the traps. I eyed a well hidden boulder (somehow) hanging in the trees, a near invisible tripwire ready to be snapped thankfully avoided, more yellow gunk, blunt kunai traps, spiderweb traps, even a tiny little rabbit snare trap that caught Reyumaru's foot, but he was able to stop us before he when tumbling down into another trap the snare was supposed to drop us into. I never could see the traps until after Minda or somebody else pointed it out, I wouldn't survive 3 steps into this course without being badly injured.

"Eumo-sensei always has to be so rough with us…" Minda whined softly, easing herself around a spider web tripwire very carefully.

"He really doesn't hold back does he?"

Reyu chuckled, "Oh no, this is his way of holding back, he could be so much worse."

Oh really? "Worse than this?"

He nodded, "Worse than this, " he confirmed, "He always liked to push us farther than I've heard from other genin's senseis. I still remember our first spar against him after he just got us, I thought somebody like him couldn't possible have earned the name, 'Shadow Terror' but then we fought him." Minda giggle ahead while Jono hmph'd from behind.

"Yeah I remember," Minda started, "The first thing he did was kick Jono through a tree, then he went ahead and beat the crap out of us in the name of, 'Having a little fun before I actually give you chance.' It was hellish."

"But it was also a great way to build endurance and to learn how to battle a overall better enemy. He taught us how to do the basics in trap making and first aid, then forced us to apply these skills in brutal 'mock' battles." Jono rubbed his wrist lightly, "I've lost count how many times he's broken something in my body, and being kicked through trees isn't even that painful anymore. Which means his way of 'training' has been doing me some good with pain endurance at the very least."

I looked down from my perch, examining the large web of nearly invisible wires, "Are any of these traps really dangerous enough to do serious damage?" We already saw Minda's ankle being twisted by a sticky trap, but then there was those boulder traps in the trees that would've crushed us, more specifically me. I'm fairly sure that half the things on the course will kill me if it goes wrong, but that's the point of the exercise in the first place.

I should just stop complaining.

Reyu shrugged his shoulders lightly as he finally stepped out of the webbed dangerzone. "Nothing Eumo-sensei sets for us will kill us or anything, he doesn't use real ninja wire or kunais. Instead, he uses the mock traps from this prank store in Konoha, not fatal, but it hurts like a bitch. But sometimes he does mix real weapons with the mock ones, to 'Keep us on our toes' and not get too comfortable. As shinobi, we can avoid most of the traps, but with you here… If we mess up, then there is no guarantee that we can save you from getting hurt."

"Hey!" Minda elbowed Reyu, targeting him with a steely glare, "Don't tell him that, and don't believe that either, as shinobi we are trained to be able to protect ourselves and others. If we can't protect one civilian from one shinobi, then how are we going to deal with actually being on the field? We're lucky enough that we didn't have to fight in the last war thanks to Eumo-sensei, but I don't think we'll be so lucky the next time."

Jono huffed, crossing his arms and setting his weight on his back leg, "Shinobi are tools built for killing, it was ingrained into us for all of our lives. While protecting others can come with a mission, it is ultimately our duty to insure victory for our village through our strength and ability to kill our enemies."

Minda went to open her mouth, but was interrupted when the ground underneath us exploded outward, throwing all of us into the air. I renewed my death grip on Reyu's back as a powerful gust of wind followed up, blasting us back down to the ground, thankfully away from the spiderweb trap, so that's one crisis averted.

"Ugh!" The genin I was clinging to grunted as he landed roughly on front, having twisted around at the last moment to fall onto his hands and knees, while the rest of his team went down at more awkward angles. I groaned into the spiky haired kids back and dug my nails harder into his shoulders to distract myself from the pain throbbing in my side(Also ignoring the hiss that came from the kid as I did so). For my first encounter being hit by a jutsu, I give it a A+ in Ouch. It felt like a powerful blunt object slammed into my side, thankfully we was turned to the side of the attack, so it didn't hit me full force from the back (Really bad.), and it didn't hit Reyu full force from the front(Also bad.). Oddly enough, instead if the intense cutting/slicing damage wind is normally associated with, it was a blunt attack instead, wonder if Eumo-sensei did that on purpose...Look at me, thinking about this crap while in pain, where is he anyways.

I lifted my head and looked around warily, I can see Jono and Minda, both now on their feet and nursing minor injuries, but I can't see the jounin amongst the trees at all. Hit and run maybe?

"Are you okay?"

I closed my eyes and rested my head back onto his coat, nodding tiredly, all the stress that comes with being in this dangerzone is a little too much from my little body, remind me to never agree to a favor with Eumo ever again.

Survival Rule: Never EVER agree to a favor with Eumo, it involve lots of pain and psychological strain.

"My side hurts, but I'm fine. Can you sense Eumo-san at all?" I asked.

Reyu shook his head, "I'm not a good sensor, so I can't tell where he is."

Minda winced and rubbed her lower back, "I can't get any read off him, usually he lets some chakra be detectable, but I haven't been able to find him this entire session. The most I've gotten was a tiny spark just before he attacked us with that Fuuton jutsu. But we was already taken off guard by the Doton one beforehand, so I couldn't react."

"We can talk about this later, Sensei is giving us a chance right now and we can't waste it chattering all day." The rest of the team nodded at Jono's intervention and immediately started running, Minda first, Me and Reyu second, and Jono bringing up the rear.

OoOoOoO

It took little under 5 minutes before we finally found the safe point, a small clearing with a shrine in the middle, also a small sign saying "Safe" in kanji. It would've been easy getting me to it… if it wasn't for the fact that a certain long haired jounin wasn't lounging in front of it in the sexy bowser pose… He really did look sexy doing it, curse this child body. Thank the Gods that I'm not the type who blushes (Take that Anime Physics!) or gets nosebleeds, they will never know. MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

-beat-

Anywho~

"Sooooo….gotta plan?" I whispered into Reyu's coat hood.

"Nope."

Minda scootched closer to us, her hand gripping the unused whip tightly, "Should we just charge him? I can't think of any plan that wouldn't just fall apart on contact."

"We should focus on keeping him preoccupied, and then sneak Yurei-san to the safe spot while his distracted. It's the best we can do."

With all of that decided, It was time to act! I adjusted my grip on Reyumaru, making sure I won't be flung off when they jump. I gazed down at the relaxed Jounin who yawned into his hand, I knew he knew we was here and probably knew what we was planning, but he was making no effort to acknowledge us.

Jono pulled three kunai from his pouch, one of which had a explosive..no a smokescreen tag attached. He waved us off before jumping into the trees, Minda followed his example and jumped the opposite way. They was going to surround the clearing from three positions, that's what I think anyways. Reyu set me on the branch beside him and pushed me light to create some distance, I inched away from him and gripped the tree's bark tightly, pushing a little chakra into my feet to help them stick, but only a little.

I didn't have to wait long before something happened, three kunai flew out of the tree line, stabbing into the ground in a triangle, with Eumo in the middle with a half smirk on his face (I got some gooooood eyesight if I do say so myself.). The one with the smokescreen tag glew for half a second before it exploded in thick grey smog, covering the entire clearing (And a little into the trees.) with the obscure smoke. I pulled the neck of my sweater up and over my nose just before the fog hit me, I squinted my eyes in a feeble attempt to see through the smokescreen.

"Raiton!" I felt my body tingle as the genin beside me shouted, I couldn't see what he was doing because of the smoke, but I did see the bright flash of blue light surround his blackened silhouette before cracking down in a zig-zaggy path into the center of the clearing. Simultaneously, I heard fainter shouts of 'Doton!' and 'Katon!' from wherever Minda and Jono was.

The when all the techniques presumingly collided in the middle, an explosion rocked the ground from the combined elemental techniques. It also blew the smog outwards, clearing up most of it, enough that I can see the safe point untouched in the clearing and Eumo nowhere in site. Reyu reached over and wrapped me in his arm before charging into the clearing, a kunai held tightly in a reverse grip in his other hand.

I didn't hesitate to wrap my arms around him, seeing Minda and Jono enter the clearing despite the remaining wisps of smoke drifting in the air.

Reyu stopped suddenly and flipped backwards to avoid the dropping axe kick from the elusive shinobi who fell out of the sky. Eumo lean to his side to avoid the flying kick from Jono, and stepped back out of the thorny whip's path. Reyu pulled back from the fight, but Eumo cleared the distance between us with a single step and kicked Reyu in the center of his chest, sending the both of us flying backwards. I grunted loudly when I hit the ground on our first bounce, the full weight of the larger kid crashing into me before the momentum of the kick forced another flip from us. I let go of Reyumaru halfway through the second roll and landed in a crouch, before dropping flat to the ground to avoid the second flying body.

Minda flashed through a few handsigns, "Suuton! Ibara shime-waza!" and slammed her hands into the ground, the ground shifted in a snake-like trail to Eumo before spiked vines much like the one her whip is made of burst out and attempted to wrap around the Jounin's legs. Eumo backflipped away from the vines as that lashed out at him, before pulling out a kunai and blocking Jono's. The dark blond threw two more kunai from behind me, before flashing through hand signs and spitting a large fireball at the man.

I think the feeling of a scorching hot fireball snapped me out of my daze, cause HOLY CRAP THAT ALMOST HIT ME! So I did a smart thing and decided to, y'know, scramble for my life and get to that safe spot so I can FINALLY go home? Yeah that thing, I'm going to do it now in fact.

And so I started my dangerous journey to the my salvation, crawling carefully on the ground while keeping an eye on the shinobi throwing jutsu around. I wiggled my way under the still vines from the remains of Minda's last attack and prayed that she doesn't have to retract them, cause then it will be little Uzumaki shredded mush. I quickly stuck to the ground to avoid another low flying fireball (Was he trying to kill me? How much chakra does that brat have?) and rolled out of the way of a few stray kunai and shuriken.

I picked up one of the kunai and gritted my teeth, I didn't really know how to deflect kunai, but I think I'm going to get a bit of experience today. I stayed low to the ground, since standing with that all out battle going on was suicide, and snuck my way ever closer to the safe point.

Just a little more, just a bit close- A large black sandaled foot stepped right in front of me- DAMMIT! I followed the foot up to the long legs, all the way up to the ever smiling face of Eumo, hands on his hips with his head cocked to the side. I chuckled nervously, backing up slowly from the man.

"A-aye there mate, hows it goin'?" Don't freak out, don't freak out.

"Oh I don't know, I had a fairly missed day~ Now what might you be doing little Paiko?"

"Um, crawling around trying not to be blown up?" Shit, I think that came out as a question.

Eumo straightened his back up and smirked, "Trying to get to the safe point?"

"No, just trying to stay safe." Where the hell are the genin? COME SAVE ME ALREADY!

Oh hey, there's that cloud snake dragon thing again, there right behind Eumo's head in the sky. I narrowed my eyes at it, that can't be normal, I never saw anything like that in the anime or manga, seriously I haven't. I pointed at it, "Hey, what's with that cloud in the sky? It looks like a snake squiggling in the air, and it's moving against the wind." Eumo just gave me an unimpressed look, "No seriously this is the second time I saw that thing today, seriously!" It was still there, but it was quickly making it's way across the sky, it wouldn't be there much longer.

"Paiko-chan, if your really think a trick that old would work, I-" Eumo threw himself to the side just as that tingly feeling washed over me again, a small lightning bolt struck the area a bit behind him, as soon as it did a wave of sparks spiked out of the impact area. I stilled as the lightning harmlessly flew over my head, since the jutsu was targeted for taller opponents. Seeing my opportunity, I pumped a little chakra into my legs and launched myself at the safe point.

The feeling that hit me in my chest when I smacked into the side of the shrine (Stone in fact.) was amazing, because as soon as I felt that hard, cold stone hit my body, I knew that I was home free. I fell onto my butt and groaned in pain, but I was still smiling despite the pain of running into solid stone.

Now I would pull a chowder and go running home while screaming, "I'M GOING HOME!" Buuuuut it so happens to be that this entire forest (Not a training grounds, we left the grounds long ago. Eumo probably rented this entire land out for this course.) is booby trapped and I have no chance of making 5 steps into the forest without getting hurt or dying.

Minda slowly rose off the ground, her peachy skin sporting a few dark bruises. She looked at me in disbelief and ran her hand against her head roughly like I do when I'm stressed. "Wha…"

She looked over at Reyumaru who was in a similar state of shock, though he looked much healthier in comparison to the rest of the team. Minda walked over to Reyu and jabbed his side with her finger.

"Ack!" he snapped out of his shock and glared at the vine using girl, "What was that for?"

"We won." Her high voice came out in a flat tone.

"..."

"We. Won." She repeated, a grin slowly spreading across her face. The spiky haired kid across from her mirrored her grin, nearly shaking in excitement.

"WE WON!" They both cheered, throwing their hands up in the air. I tilted my head to the side, watching their wild celebration.

"They act like then never won against Eumo-san before."

"That's because they haven't." I looked over at Eumo as he moved to stand next to me, his gloved hand resting on his hip and a different smile on his face than what i've seen before. We both watched as the genin ran to their third teammate, who was "They never managed to finish any of my previous escort courses, they always got caught by me, gotten too injured to continue, or let the client be 'killed' or badly injured along the course. This is the first time they managed to get all the way and let their target reach the safe point without major injuries, but it might just be because one little somebody had enough common sense to make their way to the end instead of cowering behind the trees. If you hadn't gotten here yourself, the kids would have been defeated by me and this would've been another failure."

He brushed his only bang behind his ear, "This was also the only course that keep me from permitting them to take C rank and up missions, I wouldn't allow them onto the field if they couldn't protect one person from somebody of my rank. Their teamwork is good, their individual skills are well developed over that of most genin, their arsenal is wide enough that they can deal with almost every situation, and now they can finally be trusted to protect clients and themselves from high ranked enemy shinobi."

That's interesting, he held his students in konoha far longer than most teams, he waited until they was strong enough and had the skills necessary to survive on the field with and without him. He didn't just take them out of konoha when they reached the requirement like other teams (Thinking back on the manga, a lot of things go wrong because the teams are but in situations where they don't have the skills needed to deal with the mission. So many things could've gone wrong on Team 7's mission, plot armor is the only thing keeping them alive.), he waited until they reached his requirements before letting them get any experience on the field.

Smart man.

Really smart man.

Damn I'm hungry.

End

* * *

 **OMG that scene dragged on and on! Sorry about the horrible (In my opinion) battle sequences, I really don't know how to make them better yet, but I'll get there hopefully.**

 **You know If there is one thing I want to see more in fanfiction, it's a SI where somebody is thrown into the naruto world in the body of an extremely important character, not as their replacement per say, but as a double. Like being in Madara Uchiha's body double while he is out running around, or dropping near Konoha had Minato or Neji. The amount of misunderstanding and madness shall be amazing! I haven't really found many fics like this, I usually see SI into OC or SI replaces main/minor characters but not any Si turns into Major character while said major character is still up and kicking where they should be, or if they're dead.**

 **Really wanna see more fics like that. Hopefully I can get lucky and spot some new ones while I stalk the Just in and updated archives every few minutes. And in case anyone is wondering, I do narrate my life exactly how Rakka does, this entire fic is pretty much my thought process through Rakka.**

 **Have a nice day peoples, Toodles!**

 **~ Love, That Crazy Fox Lady**


	4. Chapter 4: Still 4

**Hello world~ Hello the people~**

 **This is the Fox dropping in with another chapter of Surviving Shinobi 101!**

 **I can't believe I'm still doing this, I need to work on my other fics more, anyways normal disclamer. I don't on Naruto or any of the references I use in this fic, I only own my ocs (That aren't my friends anyways.) and random plot points!**

 **Have a nice read Loves!**

 **Regal: *Currently lost in Hoenn somewhere.***

* * *

I stuck my tongue out the corner of my mouth, carefully using a sharp knife to shave paper thin slices of dark chocolate on top of the whipped vanilla frosting that evenly coated the 3 layered cake. Underneath the the frosting was thick Devil's food chocolate cake, which was hollowed out with a thin layer of raspberry cream lining the walls of the hollow while the rest was filled with rich chocolate ice cream. After I finished shaving the chocolate, I picked up my piping bag full of raspberry whipped frosting and piped roses around the edges of the cake tops. On the sides I piped thick rope loops in a distinctive rose pattern, but in thin lines instead of the thick full on roses on the tops.

I set the bag down and pulled out a shaker full of colorful soft candies, I sprinkled the small pink, red, violet, and lavender candies over the top of the cake, taking care not to waste any on the large sheet I set the base of the cake on. With that done, I stepped back to admire the tasty creation in front of me.

I don't usually make cakes, but when I do, I make them to die for.

I grinned at my accomplishment and walked around the cake for any imperfections, finding none, I let out a small bout of laughter and went to fetch the box I needed to package it in. It's been a week since the whole 'Training incident' and I couldn't be better, while I did end up going home bruised and sore, I got to join Team 3 (Which was their team number, was there ever a team 3 in the series?) to a small restaurant owned by a Akimichi lady near the central part of Konoha, to celebrate the 'Victory' of the team and finally being allowed to take C-ranked missions. I got to go as payment from being their helpless guinea pig, and for my first experience trying food from the famous Food Clan, I give them a S rank for Yum, and a SS rank for OMG IZ SO GUUUUUD!

Akimichi food = Yes!

After I got all healed up from my minor bruising, Eumo dropped me off at home some time in the evening. The store wasn't anywhere near as busy as the past few days, so Dad didn't put me to work immediately, which gave me time to go in the back and catch up on some sleep. Dad did grill me for information about what happened with Team 3, to which I told him just about everything like I usually do. He wasn't a furious at me being in danger like most fathers would be, but he did check me over himself to assure the fact that, Yes, I'm perfectly fine.

The next day after that was filled with baking pies for the store, giving Madori new exercises to do (I didn't really have the time in between working, but I decided to learn the new katas with him when I can. It keeps me fit and Madori has a sparing partner now.), and taking any orders we receive out to our clients. This is the pattern that continued everyday until our shop got an interesting visitor.

~ FLASHBACK ~

I was just sitting on one of the booths, reading a book that I checked out of the library when I had to deliver a set of Fruit Tarts to the owner, I never really had the time read much in this life. I used to read all the time in my past life, it was one of my favorite hobbies and pastimes. Heck I even wrote fanfiction for some time.

Ah fanfiction, loved it.

The book I was reading was about a young man finding an little girl with angel wings hanging off a tree branch. The man got the unconscious girl out of the tree and nursed her back to good health, which she then awarded him with the power to manipulate wind. She told him that she lived in the clouds, literally, but that her mommy and daddy left her there a year ago while they was running away from some dark force. She asked this young man if he would help her find her parents, to which he agreed in exchange for her teaching him how to use his new powers.

Usually I can tell if a story is worth my time or not by the first 100 words, and I can tell right now that this story is going to be pretty damn decent of it wasn't for the random empowerment that the angel child gave the man. I don't get random empowerment much and it's an iffy subject, I'll give it a chance still.

I hummed to myself as I flipped to the next page, before I felt someone tap me on my head.

"Yeah?" I glanced up at Dad.

"Rakka-chan, I need you to take care of that customer over there while I deal with the regulars. Okay?"

I nodded and booked mark my book and tucked it into the small bag on my hip. I was wearing a large black sweater and brown shorts, different from my usual kimono that I alway wear. I was actually more comfortable in this honestly. I looked at where my Dad pointed to see a tall man with a spiky mane of reddish brown hair (Auburn?), he was a little on the big side with plump cheeks marked with purple squiggly lines, he was wearing a fine red sweater and trousers, grey armor on his shoulders and around his hips. He was obviously a shinobi, you'd have to be blind or just plain stupid not to notice the...forehead thingy or the shinobi standard supplies on his body. It was also obvious that the man was a Akimichi, marks on his cheeks, reddish brown mane and clothes? Shinobi gear and unnaturally plump for a shinobi (Who all burn a lot of calories?), what else could he be?

Still, I think this is the first time we had a clan shinobi (Well an obvious one at least.) come to our store, we have seen shinobi, though nowhere near as often as our civilian customers. I think the reason why we have so little ninjas coming in is because this is a fatty calorie bakery, aka extra weight gain. But that doesn't really stop anyone, shouldn't anyways. Now on to business, I walked around the small crowd of people standing around talking, to the shinobi leaning against one of the pillars waiting for his turn to walk up to the counter where Dad was taking orders.

I stopped before the large man and held my hands behind my back, "Excuse me sir, can I help you?" The Akimichi made a small noise and looked down at me with his black eyes, the man pushed away from the pillar and regarded me with curiosity.

"And who might you be kiddo?"

I let go of my hand and used the now free appendage to point my thumb at my chest, "I'm Yurei Rakka, The owner is my Otou-sama. He told me to come and serve you since he's too busy to do it himself. Are you here for the Bakery or the Repair service?"

"I'm here because I've heard that the pastries here was unlike anything else in Konoha, as a member of the Akimichi clan I feel obliged to see if this claim is true."

Oh? "Well sir, the bakery here specializes in pies, we hold an assortment of all types of pies, ranging from tiny Tarts and Cookie pies to large Fruit and Ice cream pies, we can claim to have a pie for every occasion! We have a numbered of prepared selections in stock right now so feel free to request anything from the menu set up over the register." I waved my hand to the large menu I made for the store, set up above the main register for easy access. I gestured for him to follow and started for the display cases separating the back from the front.

I slipped around the glass wall and pulled one of our pies from the casings, "This is one of our best sellers, The Chocolate Banana Cheesecake! It's a rich milk chocolate filling with thinly sliced bananas mixed in with small chocolate chips on a specially made chocolate graham cracker mixed pie crust. It's topped with sprinkles of powdered sugar and cinnamon and lined with decorative whipped cream roses. This pie costs 200 ryo, but it's well worth the price!" I set the pie on the counter (Me be tall 4 year old) and grinned up at the man, "Interested?"

The Akimichi set one large hand against the counter and wafted the scent up to his nose, he gave a strong sigh and gazed at my pie like it was the most important thing in the world, I wonder if all Akimichi's do that...who knows. "This pie, It's already something that I have little recollection of, the pies made in my clan are amongst the best yet, never before have I set eyes on something like this! (Course not, It's from my world, duh.)" He gestured animatedly as he spoke, and loudly too, I think he was drawing attention to us now if the curious stares pointed our way had anything to say about it.

"If you buy this pie now, then I can cut a slice for you immediately so you can try it on the spot, a sample to try before you take it home to say."

The man smiled down at me, "You're tempting this man, and I must say that you are certainly winning me over, sure I'll take that offer!" We shook hands to seal the deal, his massive one completely swallowing my tiny hand. After I let go, I ducked into the boxes next to my foot and pulled out a paper plate and stencils for eating. I pulled out a stool and stood on it so I can reach the register on the counter and start tapping on it. I carefully took the three ryo coins he offered me and shifted through it quickly, 200 ryo flat, perfect!

"I'll get that slice for you in a jiffy!" I kicked the stool over to where the pie was, I pick the knife out of the pile of tools that was just set out and cut a decent ( A little on the large side.) piece of pie out and onto the waiting plate. I passed the plate over to the redhead and crossed my hands behind my back. I watched (Funny, didn't I say I wasn't going to watch people eat?) as the man used the provided plastic spoon to scoop up a piece of the pie, he took extra care to make sure he had a little bit of everything on the spoon before putting it into his mouth.

As expected, he reacted to my pie with the way of a true food connoisseur, making sure he took everything in by eating the pie slowly. He hmm'd and took another bite, a bigger one this time, with a growing look of satisfaction on his rounded face. I felt my smile grow a bit more disturbed when his face converted into this odd pleasure expression and slowly turned away.

Okay, that was disturbing, I'll let him finish without letting myself get any more weirded out, remind me to stop watching people like a creep, not my thing, I'll just leave that to Eumo or something.

Survival Hint: Try not to watch some things too closely, It may be mentally disturbing and awkward.

"This pie….This...Masterpiece is unlike anything I have ever tasted! The smooth sweet chocolate with bites of candied banana slices and..white chocolate chips I believe? It is a combination that I have rarely ever seen, even in my lifetime! The crust is firm and holds together under the weight of the pie, yet it is not so hard as to hurt the teeth or take away from pie filling. The unique flavors of the crust not only stands out even with the strong flavors of the pie, but it blends together with it as if they were meant to be together! The powdered sugar adds a hint of something more, the whipped topping working well to tie all of the strings together. Yes this is truly a magnificent pie and deserves it's spot as the best seller!" The man's black eyes burned brightly with fire as he said his speech, hand clenched into a fist and his head raised skyward. I can almost swear that I saw a background of a setting sunset behind him as he spoke, sparkles bouncing off his pale skin.

I sweatdropped, was this how I looked to people when I go on my food rants? Hopefully not with that background, it's nice an all but I'd rather have a large dragon roaring behind me in a ray of bright light shining down from a blue and purple clouded sky, bright mini stars gleaming and circling the dragon as it's glowing golden eyes pierced right into the soul of….

Okay I'm getting carried away.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the Akimichi clamped his hand on my shoulder, an excited look on his face.

"You must tell me, who is the creator of this beautiful pastry? Who made this pie? I must know!" I blinked up at the practically glowing man, before showing him a grin to match his and then some, after all, it seems that i've found somebody who is just like me! This is awesome!

I pounded my hand against my puffed out chest and gave the man a confident look to put Uchiha to shame, "If you must know, I'm the one who makes every single pastry in this store! Ask my Dad if you must, but I'm the head chef around here and I have been since me and Dad set out on the open road years ago!" I snickered, "Dad isn't a great cook, and Madori isn't any better, so it's up to me to cook all the food because I'm the only one out of us three that can cook, and I do it well. I can cook just about anything related to baking, and I can make anything if I know the gist of how to do it!"

He raised his eyebrow, "Are you trying to tell me that a child such as you is single handedly the creator of ALL of these pies?"

I nodded, "Yeah it's not very believable, but it's the solid steel truth! It's a lot of work and it takes up almost all of the time I have, heck, sometimes I have to be baking pies for 10 hours straight in a day. It's hard but it's well worth it when I see the smiles on my customer's faces and when I see them come back for more! I bake because it's my life!" I finished with pride, standing firmly with my hands on my hips and my feet spaced evenly apart.

The Akimichi's grin came back full force and he let out a boisterous laugh, slapping me gently on my back (Cause I'm still a tiny civilian child.), "I like you kid! You've got some spunk and the confidence shows me that you know what you're talking about! Yurei-san is lucky to have a kid like you running the shop, diligent and skilled if these pies are anything to go by. Tell you what kiddo, I'll buy three more of these pies off your hands, I need to spread these amongst my clansmen so we all can know that the rumors are true!"

I nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! I'll get everything ready for you in a flash!" I snapped my fingers for emphasis, before jumping off the stool and running to the fridges to get the man's pies packaged and ready to go! I set the three now boxed pies on the counter and took the 600 ryo from the man without a second thought and placed it with all the other 100 ryo coins in the register before locking it. I whirled back to the man, "Is that going to be all for today sir? Any other orders or deliveries you want made?" I pulled out a small notepad from my pouch and a pencil just in case.

The man held the boxes under his arm, "Well… Do you have any three layered cakes, my niece is having a "Sweet Sixteenth" party and she's been nagging me to create a new type of cake instead of all the 'Old fashion' cakes our clan makes. That girl I swear, I know that there will definitely plenty of cakes for her party from some of our family who want's to prove her wrong, but…" He smiled down at me, "I think you might have a type of cake never before seen, if my instincts are right of course."

I scratched my head, I'm a pie specialist through and through, but I do have tons of cake recipes stored in my brain, I wonder….AH-HA! I stick my pointer finger up in the air, "I do! You ever heard of a Delirium Cake!? I know a great recipe for those!" I haven't made one in this lifetime, but I've made plenty in my other!

He shook his head, "Never heard of it, and I've heard of everything related to food. I'll buy it!"

"Okay sir, this cake will cost 300 ryo because it's going to be a custom made specialty cake. Give me your name and the address you want me to deliver this to, please."

"My name is Higenshu Akimichi, and I want you to deliver the cake to the Akimichi Compound, just tell the Gate Guards that you have a order from Higenshu Akimichi for Mainou Akimichi's 16th birthday." I locked up the 300 ryo he just gave me and grinned. Goodness the man is paying us well right now as just one person, heh.

"Thank you for your business! I look forward to seeing you again at the party which is when…"

"Tuesday, October 27th. 11:30 am."

"Got it! Have a nice day!"

~ FLASHBACK END ~

And that is the reason why I am currently putting the finishing touches of this masterpiece called a Chocolate Delirium Supreme...cool name right? Today was the 27th, and once again I was up at 6:40 something getting ready for ANOTHER party, geez the store just opened two weeks ago and I already had to attend to like...3 parties! By myself too, ugh!

I sealed the box and hefted it onto my wagon (Thankfully I got it back from Tonrir.), once I finished strapping it down, I wheeled the wagon through the store and waved at Dad and Madori, Dad was sitting cross legged on one of the seats, leaning over Madori who was writing something onto paper. Recently Madori decided that he wanted to be taught how to write better, so he asked Dad for some help, he has been doing good so far.

Neither of the guys looked up at me, but I noticed Dad wave at me for a moment. I tugged the wagon outside to where Mace was waiting with the cart strapped to his back, glaring darkly at anyone who passed by the store. I frowned and smacked him on his flank, "Stop that Mace, you're going to scare all of our potential customers away, you're too terrifying for your own good y'know that?" Mace rolled his eyes and huffed deeply, turning away from me. I ran my hand along the giant horse's leg, "Oh don't get all huffy bro, we have a few deliveries today, but after this first on you have a few hours to rest, since I know that you hate waking up early as much as I do."

I loaded the wagon onto the cart and locked it up before climbing onto the front seat and grabbing Mace's reins. I gave them an experimental tug then cracked them lightly, "Okay Mace, let's go!" It didn't take much for the powerful horse to effortlessly move the cart, it really was a blessing that we have him around when just one horse can't do the job, Brace is a sweetheart really, but he isn't nearly as strong as Mace. When we do need two horses, Mace and Brace are always ready (Though Mace probably rather laze around.) to do the job, they work well together~

Y'know, I should go to the stables and give Brace a nice brushing, he doesn't get enough love.

OoOoOoO

It didn't take too long to find out where the Akimichi Compound was, the compound was located in the more 'shinobi' side of the village, which I haven't really been to much since I got here. I looked at the people walking along the streets, talking and doing stuff together in groups. The amount of Hitai-ate steadily increased as I lead Mace through the streets, waving at a few people who watched us go by...they might be wondering why a little kid was on a big cart driving a giant horse that looks demonic...but I'm sure weirder things have happened.

I directed Mace around the corner and looked down the stone road, scanning my violet eyes on the houses that lined the streets for any of the signs of the Compound getting closer. I spotted the symbol of the clan on the street ahead, on the red walls of the rather large japanese building.

"Almost there Mace." I told my steed, "I'll leave you outside the gates if they don't let us in, try not to draw too much attention to yourself, okay?" He snorted from ahead, but that's as close to a confirmation that he is willing to give me. The powerful Stallion lowered his head for a split-second and stopped abruptly, also causing the entire cart to jerk while he's at it. I gripped his reins tightly and frowned, "Something wrong Mace?"

The horse turned his head to the side, red eyes trained on something in the sky. I followed his line of sight to the ocean of blue and spotted something that I thought I was just hallucinating. It was the squiggly! Right there! Snaking through clear blue sky light I saw days before! I thought I was the only one who keep seeing it, I've actually asked around if anyone has noticed a flying white snake high in the sky, but nobody knew what I was talking about. Hence, why I thought I was just hallucinating things, I am known to see things that aren't there.

But know that Mace was obviously looking at it, I know I'm not seeing things, I know it!

"So you see it too?" I said simply, instead of bursting out in my triumph of not being crazy like I wanted to. The horse glanced back at me and snorted, before ignoring whateve- Oh it's gone, dammit!

Okay back to going to the Akimichi's. Oh hey we're here…..WHAT!?

I side eyed Mace suspiciously, "I'm not going to ask how, but I'm watching you." A snort for my efforts.

Flipping Demonic Horses

I looked up at the gates to the compound, two men standing on either end of the gateway standing guard (Why are there guards? We are in Konoha y'know.). I slowed Mace to a stop in front of the guards, flashing them a bright grin. Now what did that guy tell me to do again...oh yeah.

"Hey Kid, anything you need?" One of the guys asked politely, smiling at me as I hopped off the seat.

I bowed briefly to them and nodded, "Yeah, My name is Yurei Rakka from Yurei's Repair & Bakery, Higenshu Akimichi placed an order for one of our custom specialty Cakes for Mainou Akimichi's 16th birthday. He asked for me to bring it to the party personally, is this okay sirs?" I shifted my weight to my left leg and crossed my other behind it, rocking slightly on my heels. I noticed the Black horse behind me glare at the men venomously, lowering his head to give them one of his infamous 'Mace' looks. I gave him a look, 'Stop being threatening.' and he turned his head away.

One of the guys, a large black haired man with the signature purple marks on his cheeks, he stared at my steed with a guarded expression, he turned back to me and gave a small smile, "Yes, we was told of your eventually arrival here, Higenshu informed us that you're going to be his representative to prove that brat wrong." He muttered something under his breath about 'ungrateful brats', "Anyways, I still need to see the papers and your go to go."

I pulled out a clipboard with all the delivers I had to do today and showed the official papers to the man, once that was all cleared up, I quickly found out that Mace was going to have to stay out of the gates. Not all that surprising, not everyone is going to let in a horse like Mace, and trust me that is annoying as hell. I unloaded the wagon stored in the cart and wheeled it past the two men, waving as I skipped my way into the Akimichi lands.

Wait did I even get directions?

OoOoOoO

Okay I was here now, finally after spending a few minutes wandering around with my wagon rolling behind me. After a minute or so, I decide to just ask for directions, so I found the nearest Akimichi (Who was standing right next to me.) and had them take me to the house where the party was supposed to be held.

I chatted idly with the lady as she guided me through the neighborhood, a short rounded woman with pinned up hair and a wide smile, she was kind enough to actually walk me to the place instead of pointing in a direction and leaving like SOME people (I'm looking at you business guy.). She is also the birthday girl's mother, imagine that.

"So what is this cake? My Onii-sama refused to tell me any details but I must know! It smells so good."

I waggled my finger at the excited woman, smiling cutely, "Ah ah ah, no peeking until the party Akimichi-sama~ I want it so be a surprise as much Higenshu-sama does~" I winked at her, crossing and holding the handle of my wagon behind my back with both hands.

"Oh well, the wait and expectation will just make the cake all the better!" The lady grinned down at me and stopped in front of a house, "We're here~"

"Great! Do y'all have anything like a freezer? I need to put the cake in something really cold, even a bucket of ice will work." I followed her into the house, stopping at the front door to slip my sandals off.

"Yes we do, it's in the main kitchen."

I nodded and looked around the room curiously, it was an extremely modest room for one, the flooring was a nice light brown that matched the walls, and honestly it was a very simple japanese house.

Really homey too.

There was a few people standing around as I went through the house, setting up party stuff and the whatnot. I waved at a few and skipped into the kitchen, where I saw a familiar man working on something.

"Higenshu-sama, I got the cake you ordered~" I grinned at the shinobi as he looked over his shoulder and smiled, "I brought some papers I need you to sign for the delivery and I was told that there was a freezer here I can put the cake in so nothing will be out of place."

He grinned down at me and turned away from the counter, swiping his hands together to dust off whatever might be on them, "That's great!" I dropped the handle on the ground and pulled out the clipboard, handing it to the man to sign. "The freezer is the largest box over there, it's labeled." I took the signed clipboard back and tugged my stuff over to where Higenshu pointed, thankfully the this was really obvious in this kitchen.

Once I got the large cake settled into the low frozen rack of the freezer (Gods that blast of cold air felt good.) I hurried up and said my goodbyes.

"Be sure to come back to the store and tell me how everything went! I want to hear your reviews okay?"

"I'll be sure you hear how great your cake was, I'm looking forward to actually tasting it for real instead of tasting it in my dreams. Heheheh, Have a nice day Rakka-san."

I bowed to the man and quickly made my way out of the house, I need to make sure Mace didn't damage anything (Or anybody) since I've been gone.

OoOoOoO

"Y'know you're gorgeous don't you, gosh you're just so beautiful."

I ran the thick horse brush through the silky and strong black mane as it flowed over the chocolatey fur covering the horses strong neck. I smiled blissfully at Brace as he leaned ever so slightly into my touch, unlike Mace the child-killer wannabe, Brace is a gentle, calm, and quiet horse. He never gives me those glares or sarcastic grunts, instead he rubs against me and is generally affectionate.

Between the two, I can say that I love them both equally, they both have their quirks and own personalities, and I love the way both of them act. Being an affectionate girl that I am, I generally lean to Brace to spend my free time with, while Mace is my go to for any labor or if I want to sass anything.

I stood on my tippy toes on the wooden barrel I was standing on so I can even reach the tall horse's mane. I idly brushed my free hand against the brown horse's neck and thought to myself, head bowing until my forehead rested against his warm body.

Things have been getting slower recently, which I was very thankful about. All the constant delivering, baking, creating more signs and advertisements, baking, did I mention baking yet? Definitely baking. I'm getting pretty damn worn out now, who expected our little shop to get so much business, it's absurd! We're only three people dangit!

I don't think Konoha has any safe open fields to ride on, so neither of my horses are going to get any good running in anytime soon. I'll have to take Brace on more of my deliveries so he can get some exercise in, don't want those muscles deteriorating. He needs to be nice and strong for when he and Mace need to haul all of our stuff all the way to Tetsu once we leave Konoha.

"Brace, I'm going to start taking you on more trips around Konoha so you can get some exercise in, okay?" I rubbed my hand against the top of his snout (or Whatever that is.), smiling into his creamy eyes. "I got to go now boy," placed a short kiss on his nose and jumped down from the barrel.

I waved at Brace, and Mace too for that matter, and skipped out of the stables. Now what should I do now? I guess I could spend some time at the playground, It's nice to play with other kids when I can. Of course I can't stay too long, I need to get back to work at the store in a few hours and I can't really afford to be late to my own business.

The pie storage is well stocked, so depending on how today's sells go, I won't have to make as many pies as I had to when business was overflowing. I can really use this break to relax.

I paused on my journey to look around, thanks to doing all those deliveries, I've gotten pretty well acquainted with the village itself, where certain business are and where most districts end/begin. I should go to the park near the academy, sure it's really close to the Hokage tower, y'know since they're CONNECTED. I haven't actually seen the hokage since I've been here, hell I haven't seen anybody from the actual anime in Konoha other than the occasion glimpse of a few of them. The only one I even interacted with was Obito way back when, maybe I saw Sakumo at some point, not many white haired men around konoha y'know? That are currently alive at least.

Back to the matter at hand, the park nearest to the Shinobi Academy is usually filled with academy students, their sibling and parents, and occasionally civilians. It would probably be odd if I actually went there since I have no plans on joining Konoha as a citizen or as one of their army, definitely not join the shinobi force. But it wouldn't hurt to play with the kids, as long as I don't pull any chakra skills out my ass or any of my seals, that would be bad.

Maybe I'll see somebody I know there….doubtful but possible. I wonder if any of the kids would play 'Ninja' with me...never played that before but I think it's glorified tag and hide 'n' seek. That would be pretty fun~

Wait, can't shinobi sense my chakra anyways, they can tell if it's been trained or not, I think...but I'm sure it won't be a big problem, I hope.

~A walk later ~

Hakuna Matata… Oh what a wonderful phrase~ Hakuna Matata, it ain't no passing craze!

"It means no worries~ for the rest of your days~" I sung, skipping across the road with a giant grin on my face, I spun on my heel on my next step and bounced a little more with my walk. I can see the Hokage tower from here, well...you can see it from mostly everywhere, but it was closer- no- the closest I have ever been to the big building. I wonder if I were to go inside I would see the Hokage...nah, no need to bother the man….or try to justify even being there.

Oh! There is the playground!

I quickly jogged over to the park (Playground whatever.), feeling the thin blades of grass tickle the sides of my feet get replaced by soft dirt, the kind that is usually around playgrounds. I looked around curiously, the playground was certainly not abandoned that's for sure, there was kids running up and down the park, parent's sitting at benches and chatting light, people playing in trees of lazing around on the ground. It was the opposite of empty, and that works just fine for me.

I drew a few curious gazes as I walked over to the swing set, child and adult alike, but most of them vanished in seconds, no reason to study me or anything.

I plopped onto an open swing and started kicking my legs lazily to start the gradually increasing arc of the swing. I closed my eyes and smiled, enjoying the cool breeze against my face as the wind shifted around me as I moved higher and higher.

"It's my problem free~ philosophy~ Hakuna Matata!" I giggled, always loved that old song to pieces. To bad that nobody here is going to know what that means, or even understand it's true meaning, a damn shame that is. This world can use a tad more Hakuna Matata, it might be more fun then. Speaking of fun, I should definitely use a surfboard to surf down a mountain someday, not likely but it's one of the things that I have always wanted to do.

I braced my hands against the chains holding the swing before kicking off once it reached it's highest ark, I landed toe first and charged at the jungle gym, more specifically at the large slide that is conveniently empty of kids to get in my way. I did a short jump and let the momentum from my speed force my body to slide up the half the slide before I pushed off against the metal and swiftly scampered my way to the top before gravity decided to make me slide back down (I think I startled some of the kids who was handing out at the top while I was at it.). I flashed a grin at them and looked back down the slide with a frown.

"I couldn't slide all the way up in one go, dagnabbit." I snapped my fingers for empathis, propping both of my hands on my hips. One of the kids hanging around poked my shoulder, so I looked down at them curiously, "Yeah kid?"

The boy, a dull red head with bright green eyes, pointed at his chest with a large smirk on his chubby (Not fat but child chubbiness.) face, "I bet I can make it all the way up the slide!" He challenged.

I raised a brown eyebrow and tilted my head back to further my looking down upon the child, not a hard feet since I was a head taller than him. "Is that so~?" He nodded confidently, "Are you sure you're sure?"

"I'm sure I'm sure! And I can prove it to ya'!"

I lifted one hand and made waving gestures toward the swingset, "Well if you're sure you're sure, then go to the front of that swing set over there, that's the starting point," I leaned forward and smirked at the kid, "You still want to try?"

He scoffed, "Of course! If I'm going to be a great shinobi then I can slide up a stupid slide with no sweat!" So he is a Academy student, though he does look pretty young, maybe 3 or 4, he would only be a newbie. Well unless he is advanced like Kakashi or Itachi or something, I doubt it.

He ducked around me and slid down the slide, running over to the swing I jumped off of. He turned on his heel and grinned up at me. I waved him up and stepped to the side, don't want to be in the collision path after all. He rocked back on his feet and charged for the slide at a definitely faster than a civilian child pace, leaping a few feet before the slide and hitting the metal hard with his sandaled feet. He slid up the slope until he reached just past the halfway point before he lost his speed, he copied what I did at that point and crawled the rest of the way up on his hands and toes.

I grinned down at the boy as he found his way back on the top of the structure, a sheepish smile on his face, "Okay," he started, "Maybe that wasn't as easy as I thought, but that was just a fluke! I can get it this time!" He declared, ready to toss himself off the jungle gym to give it another try. I stopped him by grabbing his shoulder and wagging my finger at him when he turned to give me a questioning look.

"Na ah ah, It's my turn again kid, I can definitely do it this time~" I went around him and slide down the slide, running back to the starting point and turning on my heel. This time I was going to put more effort into it, I know I don't need chakra to do something like this, besides using chakra is the cheap and boring way. I took a modified version of a track runners take off and ran faster than I did at the previous run, I did what I did before and hopped a yard or two before the swing so I can get a good slide started. This time I slid much higher up the slope, passing both mine and the kids ending points until I was almost right at the top of the slide. I grinned wildly as I stopped at the top of the gym, I lost a crap ton of speed at the very top and though I wouldn't be able to make it to the flooring of the structure, but I did! I would have liked it better if I lost no speed from the run and when far enough that the walls of the gym would stop me, but that will need chakra.

"That's how it's done kid~ Try jumping a little closer to the slide next time."

He scrunched up his nose and made a face, before nodding, "Okay I'll try that then, I can make it up to the top too!" He waited a second for another kid to finish sliding down before he went. A small hand tugged on the edge of my sweater and a slightly bigger little girl looked up at me (I said bigger, not taller.) shyly. She had long black hair and large brown eyes, a signature doll facial structure.

"Umm, can I play too?" She asked softly, shuffling her feet lightly.

I mentally d'awwed and nodded, "Yeah, of course you can. This is a game for everyone y'know? Just go to the front of that swing over there and try to get enough speed to slide up the slope of the slide. The goal is to reach the top of the slide without sliding back down or having to climb up at the last minute. Okay" The girl nodded and ran over to the pole and slide down, just as she did that, the boy from earlier crawled up the slide from an unsuccessful trip. He groaned loudly and I clapped his shoulder, "Don't worry kid! Give it another go after the little girl gives it a try." I nudge him out of the way and leaned over the railing to watch the girl look at the slide nervously, "Hey! Don't be afraid, just run and jump!"

She glance up at me and stepped back, before running to the slide and jumping onto it. She ran slower than me or the boy did the first time around, so she didn't make it nearly as far as we did, less than half way up the slope before she slid back down. I nudge the boy to go for another try and called down to the girl, "Nice try! Give it another go after he," I point to the boy making his way down, "Goes, just stand to the side and watch him, maybe you can learn how we get so far!"

And we played for a while, taking turns trying to slide up the slide and me trying to get up the slide with the least amount of slowing down as possible. Every once in awhile another kid may join up, the ones with any shinobi training (Aka most of them, this is a Academy park.) did much better than the civilians or the kids too young to run fast enough, but I stayed around to cheer them on, they need some support to do better.

After a while I did manage to get involved with a group of kids playing ninja, and my assumption was right, it was like glorified hide and seek mixed with tag, fun as hell too! It's too bad that I know for a fact that some kids in this world can't enjoy their freedom like this, the ones in bloody kiri, around the damaged/struggling villages, or anyone who just can find happiness, they don't have this luxury. So I'm going to play for all of the kids who can't!

Hell yeah!

OoOoOoO

"HEYAH!"

"Ack!"

I hit the ground hard in a dodge roll to avoid the flying kick at to my head, I sprung to my feet and faced my assaulter, a blue haired kitten with a scowl on his face and a dangerous air circling around him.

I through my hands up and waved the frantically, "Woah, woah! Calm down man, what did I do to you? I swear it wasn't me!" The older boy sneered at me, hands clenched into tight balls and his legs slightly bent at the knees and spaced apart. He looked ready to kick some ass, and I have a feeling it's going to be my ass getting kicked.

I stepped back and laughed sheepishly, trying to defuse whatever situation this is, "Now then Madori-kun, can't we talk whatever this is, " I gestured to him, "Without any harm to my person?"

He glared harder, "Don't try to talk your way out of this." He hissed angrily, hair draping in wild strands around his body down to his knees, his faces was partially covered by his hair and his already narrow blue eyes was nearly closed to slits. I opened my mouth to try to silver tongue my way out of this, but the blue blur launched himself at me with a practiced (I see he has been training with that style in those scrolls.) punch, I leaned to the side and stepped away. He lashed at my face with a kick that I barely back stepped from and continued his assault with faster punches and kicks.

I used whatever reflexes I had to duck around his attacks, while swatting (Swatting his punches actually hurts! Ow.) punches that came to fast for me to dodge by smacking his wrists/ankles as they come. Thank goodness I was watching how Eumo redirected his student's attacks during the training incident, or I would most likely try the traditional way of blocking which definitely would have hurt more. Now you may be thinking on how I'm able to engage Madori, a shinobi hopeful, in a taijutsu match with no shinobi training (Officially, I only have chakra control because I'm going into Fuinjutsu, remember?) and not get my ass handed to me? It's because I still know self-defense, nothing like a offensive shinobi style, but a non-lethal civilian style. It comes in handy when Madori decides he wants to attack me for one thing or another.

Kids I swear.

I ducked under a high kick and backed away from the follow up, with a quick step left to avoid the open hand strike, then I smacked the wrist of his other hand to make him jerk down. I took a strong step forward while he was regaining his balance and rammed my hip into his side as hard as I could (Which is pretty hard by the way.), causing the slightly smaller kid to go flying onto his back with a tiny grunt.

I backed away from him and scratched the back of my head, frowning.

I don't know why he is so angry at me, I don't remember doing anything to piss him off today, or the day after that as a matter of fact. What the hell is up with the kitten today? Let me think...well he was acting odd today, this morning. He was silent and more starky than usual when he did open his mouth, never did he get too close to me either, he always kept a distance between us too.

Weird, even when he is pissed off he always sticks close to me. That should have sent warning bells off in my head, but I'm not the best a reading a subtle atmosphere. Let's see….hmm, he didn't eat as much as usually this morning, only pushing and prodding the food with the tips of his chopsticks. He was also slouching, with his hair covering his eyes and a particularly deep scowl on his young face.

Okay so this didn't come out of nowhere, I just barely caught the sandaled foot flying at my face, using his own momentum to toss him over my shoulder.

What about yesterday? Was he moody then too? ...yeah he was, near the end of the day he started glowering at me like I pranked him or something, which I didn't, I was too busy working to bother pranking him last week. Bu-OW!

I felt my entire head snap to the side from the force of that punch, pain blooming across my cheeks. I snapped back at that little shit, pinning him with a vicious glare and a pained grimace.

"Gods Dammit Madori what the HELL is wrong with you!" I growled out, holding my pained cheek in my hand, I can taste the familiar metallic flavor of blood in my mouth. That little shit never punched me like that before! Even in the little spars we might have was nothing like this, he was really trying to hurt me this time (No duh.). I turned my head to the side and spat a thick blob of crimson blood onto the ground, I stared at the splatter on the ground with a scowl, then wiped the blood dribbling down the side of my mouth off.

Madori stood frozen across from me, clenched hand lowered to his sides and eyes shadowed by his bangs. He was visibly shaken, probably staring at the blood I spat on the ground, then to the blood smeared (I can feel it.) across my face.

"What the everliving FUCK is wrong with you today Madori? Why the hell are you so angry? Enough that you would actually attack me out of nowhere in the middle of a empty park with so much killing intent!?" Yeah, I didn't notice it before, but that dangerous air around him was uncontrolled KI, it was weak and obviously untrained but the intent to maim was still there.

Honestly, I'm pretty damn pissed right now, can you tell?

The boy shook his head violently and sneered, though it had a lot less bite than it had before, "Don't act like it's not your fault! I know you have been keeping things away from me and I'm tired of it! Why don't you ever take anything seriously!?"

"I am serious." I stated, pinching the the bridge of my nose in irritation, "Tell me what's wrong Madori, I don't know what you are going on about right now and I am very confused. Tell me what you think I did to you." I said this as calmly as possible, face locked into a neutral expression.

"You're hiding something from me, something important and I want to- No- I need to know what it is, and it's driving me crazy!" He gripped his hair tightly with both hands, head bowed, "And that's not all! I've be noticing something different ever since we came to Konoha, you're almost always gone, and when you are home you never spend any time with me anymore, it's like I'm not even there to you anymore!"

I reared back a little during his tiny rant, sighing deeply. So that's it, the kid is having abandonment issues, I should've expected this really, after all he is a war orphan and no stranger to being left behind. He thinks I'm going to leave him behind, doesn't he?

I walked up to the shaking child, who stepped back from me once he noticed my approach, I backed him up slowly, until he was back to back with a tree. "Madori." I said, ignoring the way he flinched when I spoke his name, "Madori come here."

I slipped my hand around his arm (His arms are far more compact than they used to be.) and pulled him into my embrace, holding onto his body with a firm and strong grip.

I don't know how long I help the shaken child, who shivered violently in my arms as we both sagged slowly to the ground. I stayed silent, I don't think I would need words to let him know that I was there, he never liked talk anyways.

"Rakka…" I looked down at the blue-haired kid, who for once since during the fight started me directly in the eyes, dark blue eyes clouded and shimmering slightly in unshed tears. He opened his mouth to say something, but froze when a drop of red liquid splatted onto his face.

That's right, I am still bleeding...funny. Man, Dad is going to be pissed.

I reached up and rubbed the blood off my face, probably smearing it worst while I was at it. "You still got one hell of a right hook, hell it's stronger than usual." I gave the boy a crooked (Probably bloody.) grin, but it fell away when I noticed that he was staring blankly up at me, eyes dilated and mouth slightly ajar. "Madori?"

"M'sorry…" he said it softly, so soft I had to strain my ears to hear what he was saying, "M'so sorry." Oh, there is the tears, I was wondering when they was going to fall. I held the sniveling child in my arms and rested my head on his head.

"I'll be fine." I said simply, while also praising the fact that I can never stay angry, this could have turned out so much worse. "I'll tell you anything you need to know, I always will y'know?" I never hid it in the first place you silly child.

Survival Rule: Pay more attention to your loved ones, you never know when they could be going through and might need some support.

Survival Hint: Always go to a medic when you have no first aid supplies, especially if you want to avoid you laid-back but secretly terrifying father.

Thank goodness Eumo was in the park to heal us up…

WHY THE HELL WAS HE THERE!?WHAT HE WATCHING THE ENTIRE TIME!?

Creepy fuck that man is.

OoOoOoO

I combed my hands through the silky blue hair as I leaned back into the pillow, looking up blankly at the cream ceiling. Madori laid on my stomach, his thin arms wrapped around my abdomen and his head resting on my chest. The kid was still a little shaken up from the fight earlier, but he is getting over it fast enough, I'm not going to rush him or anything.

The kid shifted slightly, tucking some of his hair behind his ear and burying his cheek deeper into my shirt. "Rakka…" I hmm'd, playing with the edges of his hair lazily, "Can you take me to the park? Not to train or anything, but just to play?"

"Sure, I should have some time tomorrow at noon, but I have deliveries all morning and some in the evening. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah… I'd like that." I grinned and pat him on his head, I turned enough to reach the lap and turned it off, bathing the room in darkness. I pulled the covers up higher and got comfortable, wrapping my arms around the smaller body. When was the last time I got like this with Madori? The week we got here? I can see why he was so angry at me then, in my time of knowing Madori I learned that he has a very short fuse, he is quick to take something to heart if it's from somebody he trusts, and he doesn't like being ignored. Makes sense that he would snap at me after nearly a month, but I wish I could've saw this coming before I got decked in the face by his rage, literally.

I hope he learns to control those emotional responses soon, especially if he is going to become a shinobi. Speaking of that, Dad talked to his friend a while back about taking in Madori in a year or so, so that he can stay in konoha and become a ninja. Of course we could just take him with us and have him continue his training safe from the third war, but I doubt he would enjoy being so far away from the action. But I for one do not want him having to experience the war at his age, sure shinobi like Gai, Kurenai, Ebisu, or whatever all ended up surviving with minimum damage, but they all have plot armor. Something that Madori would not, he isn't an important character to this world and such qualifiers as cannon fodder. Hence why I say we should take him with us to Tetsu and just have him learn how to be a shinobi from scrolls and maybe a few bandits too.

But in the end, it's going to be Madori's decision if he is staying with us or not. Though I feel like I should make up for leaving him all alone still, maybe make him a cake or something...speaking of cakes, when is his birthday anyways?

"Madori, when is your birthday?"

His voice was muffled by the covers over his head, but I heard it anyways, "October 26."

The 26th okay I c- WHAT!

I shot up abruptly, flinging the 7- No- the 8 year old off me with a yelp, "We missed your BIRTHDAY! GODDAMMIT!" Shit! I need to make presents! I didn't make him any pancakes, I'm the worst big sister ever!

Cue panic attack.

Survival Hint: Remember all important dates. This is self-explanatory.

OoOoOoO

"Here you go." I slid the picnic basket over to Madori, who was laying on the blanket while reading out of one of Dad's Geography scrolls...Dad has a lot of scrolls. The blue haired kitten reached into the basket to pull out a wrapped up egg sandwich before pushing it back to me. I pulled out a sandwich of my own and handed the third to the man sitting behind me, Dad took the food gratefully and unwrapped it before going back to the thick novel he was reading.

With the two dudes preoccupied, I made myself comfortable against Dad's side and ate my sandwich, savoring not only the food but this peaceful time alone with my family, no work, no baking, no training, just some quality time together.

I can get used to this.

I peaked one of my eyes open and glance over at the horses grazing in the same grassy field that we was relaxing in. Brace troted in a small circle before stopping near the larger horse, he nudge Mace on his side and got an annoyed grunt in return. I smiled and rested my head on Dad's side, "Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves." I mentioned quietly, watching a couple of kids in the far side of the field rolling around.

"Hmm, it's a peaceful day, ever since the war ended kids have been allowed to come outside and be kids, families also think that now is a good time to start expanding their families, start having kids. The village even benefits because now the merchants can start travelling again and expanding the villages funds. It's the perfect time to prepare for the next war by gathering money, equipment, and soldiers." He took a bite from his sandwich.

"This peacetime give the village time to properly train the next shinobi so that during the next war they will be stronger and hopefully, the survival rate will be high." I added, "This is also a good time to access the damage done to the village, and the land the villages own and see why they couldn't withstand the war, then to improve and make them more better by rebuilding and reconstructing them."

"You don't need to try to sound smart by synonyms y'know," I pouted up at Dad for that comment, he chuckled at my face and tousled my hair. "But you are right, it's the reason we're here after all. I've already gotten a few jobs to oversee the reconstruction of a few of the buildings. Though I may be a civilian, I know enough about construction that I can build structures that can take more damage than a normal building without the use of my other skills."

Oh right, I almost forgot that Dad is a seal user like me, odd since he teaches me. It might be because I haven't seen him use seals in awhile. Laying low and all that.

"Are you two so sure that another war will happen?" We both looked over at Madori, the 8 year old frowning at the both of us with a disturbed look on his face. The book he was reading layed closed on the blanket, a barely noticeable piece of paper sticking out at one end. Me and Dad shared glances, before I decided to speak.

"Madori, there WILL be a next war, it's a endless cycle that will exist for as long as there are beings that hate, and battle each other. It may be a year after or an entire decade, but war between beings will always exist at points of time, big or small. The Third Shinobi war will happen, that's a fact. I don't even need to know the future to know that."

The kid's frowned deeply, gripping his hands tightly. Before I could move to do anything for him, Dad reached his giant arm over and pulled Madori between us with the ease of moving a plastic spoon. I scooted over enough to squish Tori-chan between me and Dad and wrapped one of my arms around his shoulders.

"Don't worry your pretty little blue head Madori, we aren't going anywhere any time soon."

Hopefully at least.

"Madori...remember how I said that we are only staying in Konoha for a year and a few months? I was thinking about something." He looked at me curiously, along with Dad flashing me a reassuring smile, "There is two options for you. One, you can stay with Ronfico, an old friend of Dad, he will take care of you while you join the shinobi Academy and will provide for you until you are a genin. The second option, is to come with us to Tetsu and start your training as a shinobi with only our help and get fighting experience in Tetsu against any bandits or attackers. One will let you become an official shinobi, have a team, and have a person to teach you everything you need. The downsides is that you have a very high chance of dying once the war starts, because they will send you out to your death with no regrets, and you can end up with bad teammates and/or a bad sensei who might just get you killed if you're unlucky.

The second one will let you continue to live with us as we travel the elemental nations, you can still learn how to be a shinobi but you will only have me and Dad to help you and all of the scroll we have will be open for you, even the jutsu ones that we collected from all over the nations. The downsides is that you won't get as much experience working with other shinobi, you won't have an experienced sensei to teach you how to be a shinobi, You won't have the safety of being in a well protected village filled to the brim with powerful shinobi, and you have to face the unknowns of who and what we will encounter on our journey." I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side.

"It's your decision to make, take all the time you need to think about it. We have a year after all." I clapped him on the back and got up. I had some carrots in the basket for Mace and Brace that I haven't gave to them yet, so I'mma do that now.

OoOoOoO

I was hanging around the Academy again today, stalking around the playground and recess areas to observe and watch my fellow children in their natural environments. I glanced up at the sky to check the time, It was almost lunch time again! That means that I can interact with all the little brats without having to worry about trying to sneak in, which is impossible by the way. Unless I'm using chakra, but then that will draw attention to me and they might try to make me become a ninja, and that's a no go!

I scrambled into one of the larger trees in the area, pulling myself between two split thick branches that are perfect to lay on without fear of losing my balance. Not to mention the perfect view of the recess area, so I can watch them and draw in peace.

I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag and laid it on my lap, pulling the thin brush with it's ink bottle out and securing it to the tree. I miss pencils, drawing with ink is piss annoying, no eraser or anything, If this place had pencils then I don't know where to find them. And I'm not looking forward to waiting 30 or more years to have internet, Tv, pencils, and the like.

I set the brush in the ink and leaned back onto the trunk of the tree, brainstorming what I should draw first. I hadn't even found a thought by the time voices reached my ears, the students have all started filtering into the field, quickly breaking into groups and moving to their own little areas to hang out in. I curiously looked down at them to see if I recognize anybody.

There was a few noticeable clansmen there, the pupiless eyes of the Hyuugas, the bright blond Yamanakas, The plump Akimichis, The broody Uchihas, The reclusive Aburames, and a few other's lingering about. I think I saw Asuma and Kurenai, maybe Ebisu and somebody else, this is the most canon characters I've seen in one place.

Wasn't Obito in the Academy too? I know Kakashi is already graduated so he's not gonna be here, Rin is somewhere here if Obito is still here.

"I can't believe I failed that test!" Must. Resist. Instinct. To.

"Believe it!" Goddammit!

"Huh! Who's there!" Look up babe, you're going to be a shinobi so you got to be more aware of your surroundings. I peeked through the branches to watch the black haired kid under my tree in amusement, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Look up kid."

The goggle wearing kid looked up, black eyes narrowed and a admittingly adorable frown on his face. I waggled my fingers down at him once he finally caught my eyes, "Hey, what do you think you're doing up there!" He pointed up dramatically, I rolled my eyes at his question and leaned back onto the trunk, also out of his view.

"Sitting in a tree, what do you think kid?"

"Hey! Who are you calling a kid! You're a kid too!" He yelled.

"That's what you think~" I think I can hear him grinding his teeth, oh how I love pissing people off...even if they are going to turn into vengeful Hax op villains that will almost single-handedly cause all the issues in this world...

Nah, that's sounds more like Aizen than Tobito.

"Don't make me come up there!" He threatened...I wonder I'd I can put him in the Kitty area...but Tori-chan might get jealous. I snickered.

"Come up here then, I like talking face to face y'know?"

"Fine!"

I listened to the fabric of his clothes rustle with the leaves as he started climbing. I grinned at the Uchiha as he pulled himself up on a branch across from mine, glowering at me as he pushed his goggles farther up his head. He blinked at me for a second, before pointing at me in surprise,

"It's you! You're that kid I bumped into a week ago or something!"

I was surprised that he remembered, that happened a while ago and we barely interacted. Guess I have to give him props for is decent memory, better than mine. I smirked and nodded, confirming his declaration.

"Yes it's me, have you learned your lesson to watch where you're charging?"

He scrunched up his face, "Well I haven't bumped into near- Wait a second, I don't need to tell you anything!"

"Then why are talking to me if you don't want to tell me anything? Kinda defeats the point y'know?" Little Obito was cute that's for sure...That's it! I can draw Obito! I haven't drawn him that much in both of my lives, but with him sitting right in front of me (Actually more to the west.) I can get a great reference!

With that decision I blanked out whatever the kid was talking about and started drawing him instead. I took half-focused strokes against the rough paper, curving the lines to form his rounded jaw with just enough pressure to leave an even, thick line. Because I didn't have a pencil to draw any guidelines, i'll have to do without, I don't really need them anyways.

"Hey are you even listening to me!?"

"Shush and stay still, I'm trying to make this accurate." I stick my tongue out the corner of my mouth and stare at Obito's goggles closely, taking in all the detail that I can before starting to draw them onto the painting Obito.

The future villain frowned at me in confusion, "What are you doing?" He asked, criss-crossing his legs and resting his hands on his calves.

"I'm drawing you." I answer simply, creating his spiky hair with clean, even strokes. I guess that must have piked his interest, because he started to move over to me, probably with the intention of peaking at the drawing. Well I couldn't let that happen can I? "Na ah ah, No peeking until I'm done okay?"

He huffed and crossed his arms, "Fine."

I flashed him a grin and finished drawing all of the details of the painting, now I just need to color his hair black, add in shading, then bam! Drawing of Obito Uchiha! Done and done! I feel like I should've drawn his entire body with a tree background, but that takes too much effort and I made his head take up most of the page, since I wasn't planning on the body in the first place.

Ah well.

"Can I see noooow?" He whined, leaning forward again. Since it was pretty much done, he can look at it with no problem on my part. I turned the painting around and let him see it, puffing out my chest proudly while I was at it. He ooo'd and stuck his face close to the artwork, "Wow, this is really cool, it's like you took a picture or something!" Or it may be the face that we are all animated and I have 17 years of anime drawing experience, but he doesn't need to know that.

I carefully tore the page out of my book and handed it off to him, "Here, take it, I rarely keep my drawing anyways." He grabbed the page and gave me a slightly unsure grin.

"Um, thanks but, i'm kinda clumsy, I might mess it up or something." I shrugged, doesn't matter to me if he damages it or not, it's his now.

"Throw it away then or find a safe place to put it, it's your decision y'know?" I stuffed my book in the back and packed up my brush and ink with it's companion, before I looked down at the field and the kids still hanging around. "So why aren't you hanging around down there with your classmates eating lunch?"

He looked down like I did, before turning away with a tiny scoff, "I don't need to hang around with other kids just for lunch…" He turned a little more gloomy, "Mostly because they don't want to.." He mutter silently, though I still heard him anyways. Normally, if this was Madori, I'd pull him into a hug against his will and shove a cookie down his throat but...What the hell nothing's stopping me!

I reached over and grabbed his arm much like how Dad did to Madori earlier, pulled him over onto my branch and squashed him in a hug. I let the light reflect off of my shiny white teeth as I gave the kid a 'Nice Guy' smile, "I don't see why nobody would want to hang with you, you're funny and like a little kitten." I ignored his exclamation of "Kitten?" And gave the sky a thoughtful look, "Y'know what, for now own, you're name is Kitty! I will never call you anything other than that~" Obito is now Kitty! It's settled.

"No no no! Don't call me that! My name is Obito! Obito! Not Kitty!" He flailed in my arms for a bit in distress.

"Calm down Kitty, now why don't you do me a solid," I pulled him closer, my grin morphing into a mischievous smile. The kitty looked at me in suspicion, pushing back against my arm as he tried to lean away from me, "Tell me about some of the kids down there," I pointed down to where every other kid was hanging out, "I'm a little curious."

He made a face at me, "Why should I tell you anything, I don't even know you."

"Well then Kitty, I'm Rakka, pie extraordinaire, and you should tell me because."

He frowned, "Because?" Right on cue, his stomach let out a loud rumble, which made a even large grin bloom on my face. He blushed slightly and rubbed his stomach lightly, "Eheheh…"

"Sounds like somebody's hungry, where's your lunch kid?" He blushed harder and scratched the back of his head, his head turned away and he mumbled something. "Louder, I can't hear what you said."

"I said I forgot it at home." He grumbled moodily, crossing his arms with an embarrassed pout.

Now isn't this just perfect, I knew there was going to be a good reason to pack two lunches to day, and not because I was going to eat them both...actually I was, I'm a hungry little hippo. I zipped open my bag and pulled the small bento box. It was just a normal lunch box, with rice balls (And not the jelly-filled kind.), chicken salad, a wrapped up moon pie, and some dried berries. I put the same thing in both bentos, so I can have double portions.

"Here Kid," I held out the bento to him, a normal smile on my face for once. He looked at it in surprise, then looked at me in confusion. "I have two of these," I let go of his shoulder with my other hand and showed him the identical bento in my bag, "So I have enough to spare for somebody else, I was planning on eating them both anyways."

Obito quietly (Shocker.) took the bento from my hand, "Umm, thank you." He crossed his legs and leaned back against the same trunk I was using (Since I pulled him over to my nest/branch thingy.), the bento was pried open to show the carefully arranged (It need to be aesthetically pleasing, the artist in me demands no less.) lunch. I handed the Uchiha a pair of chopsticks and a water bottle. "Hey hey! You don't need to give me all of this."

I laughed, "Don't worry~ Take it~ I always have plenty of food and snacks on me so it's all good."

Speaking of food, I might as well eat my bento too, seeing Obito with it just made me really hungry. I pulled out my own bento and sticks, unlike Kitty who seemed a little reluctant to take and eat the food, I had no problem just digging in. Mostly because I know it's good food with nothing wrong with it.

I glanced over just to see if he decided to eat yet, but the kid was picking at the food with a unsure expression. "The food is fine kid, we're eating the same thing." To demonstrate, I reached over and stole one of the chicken pieces, popping it into my mouth with no hesitation.

"Hey! That was mine!" I just grinned as he shouted at me, shrugging my shoulders before continuing with my own bento. Obito pouted again, before snapping the chopsticks apart with a exclamation of 'itadakimasu!' and eating a bite of the chicken salad.

After that we ate in relative silence, besides the chatter of the kids under us and the soft sounds of us chewing our lunch.

The spiky haired boy finished before me, setting the empty bento on his lap. He gave me a large grateful smile, "Thanks Rakka. I thought I was going to go home starving today! The food was really good!"

I puffed out my chest and pounded on it with a closed first, "Of course It tastes good! I'm the one who made it!"

Obito jerked back in surprise, "You!? You can cook!" I rolled my eyes at him, of course I can cook, if I couldn't cook then tell me what I have been doing most of my lifetimes. But I guess even for other kids it's weird, what am I talking about of course it's weird!

"You better bet Kitty, I own a bakery, an actual bakery that I share with my Otou-sama's Repair shop. I make every last bit of food in that shop. Day in and day out, it's a long, tiring job, but I love it all the same. I actually specialize in pies, but I can make anything~" I boasted, I really can make anything, lately I've been thinking about expanding to cookies but… that's a lot of work and it's not like I have a factory to produce the products in.

"Wow so you have your own shop! You're like," He stared at his hands for a sec, "My age or something!"

I shifted so I can face him completely, "Well how old are ya?" I also take the bento box from him and put it back into my bag, a quick wash and it will be ready to go again!

"I'm 6! I'm in my second year of Academy" He grinned proudly, "And I'm going to be the Hokage one day!" I almost expected him so say 'Believe it! Or Dattebayo!', Funnily enough, I don't have that verbal tic like other Uzumakis, wait wait no that's a lie. I say y'know a lot, which is pretty much the equivalent to Dattebayo/basa/bane, I just don't say it like they do.

If somebody was looking to prove that I'm an Uzumaki, the could've used that verbal tic, but since I technically don't have it, they can't.

NA NA NA NA NA NA~ SCREW YOU WORLD! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

-beat-

Was was Obito saying again? Oh right. "The answer to your question is 'or something'." I finished backing all of my stuff into the bag and stood up on the large branch, followed by the little Uchiha. "Guess what? … I'm 4 years old."

"WHAT! No way! You're bigger than me! You can't be that tall and younger than me!" I chuckled at his dumbfounded stare, waving him off.

"I have good genes, anyways It's time for me to go to work, I'll see you later Kitty." With that, I leaped down the openings in the branches to the ground, startling (You're all ninja wannabes! Y'all should've known I was there!) and quickly skipped away, ignoring Obito's shouting to wait and any other person that was trying to talk to me.

Afterall I was 5 minutes from being late for my shift…. SHIT!

Survival Rule: Don't let yourself get distracted when you're on a strict schedule, you'll find yourself rushing to get things done more often than not.

Oh wait I didn't get Obito to tell me about his classmates yet! Ah, I'll just pop in again some other time.

* * *

 **Well that was a long chapter, took forever to write since I can only type in school if a certain teacher is there. Welp, I'm still trying anyways.**

 **So Rakka is still trying to lay low, and is still failing at it. Eumo is still a nosey fucker, and Madori has temperament and Abandonment issues. Rakka can be so dense sometimes but her cooking skills makes up for it.**

 **The Squiggly has made it's return and this time Rakka isn't the only one seeing it, also more Mace and Brace with a dash of little Obito. I don't even know who she should bump into next.**

 **Read and Review loves, tips are welcome, and have a beautiful day~**

 **Love, That Crazy Fox Lady**


	5. Chapter 5 : Turn 5 already!

**What's up Loves? This is the lazy Fox gal dropping a new chapter of SS101!**

 **Sorry this took so long to put up, I can't really get on internet using my computer and schools over, so no google docs ;-;.**

 **Anyways, let's jump into it! I don't own naruto or any of the references I use in my fics! I only own my OCS!**

 **Regal: *Somewhere in Sun and Moon hype***

* * *

"Are you sure this horse is normal?" Obito looked up at the towering animal, black eyes locked on bloody red. I think I can almost see the sweat dripping down his face right now. Mace lowered his head to where it just hovered hover Kitty-kun and blew air out his nose. Kinda like those bulls in cartoons really. Obito shivered and looked away, backing off fast.

"That things evil! I just know it!" He exclaimed, pointing at the demonic horse as he snorted at the tiny brat. I chuckled and slapped his back.

"Don't worry Kitty-kun, Mace is just getting a good feel on ya'. He ain't gonna hurt ya'...too much."

Obito jumped back and grabbed his arms in a hug, "Don't do that! Something is wrong with that horse! Why aren't you bothered by it?"

It may be because I had Mace most of this life and that I trust him. But little obito didn't need to that part. "I donno, maybe the fact that I "Own" him? So suck it up mate," I reached over and tossed my arm over his shoulders, "You're going to be a powerful shinobi aren't cha? Don't let something that won't actually hurt you terrify you."

He glared up at me from his position stuck in my hug, "I'm not scared! It's a healthy dose of wear-ee-ness!" He struggled a little on that last word, but he is doing well enough on that speech.

So proud of 'em, They grow up so fast.

"If you say soooo~" I waved Mace off with a shooing motion, the stallion tossed a glare at me and stalked off somewhere...maybe I should keep better tabs on where he wanders off too...might get me in trouble one day. Obito wiggled in my grasp, but I just hugged him tighter and whirled him around with me. "Come on Kitty-kun! Let's go to the bakery! Tori-chan is waiting for us!"

Obito snorted and crossed his arms. It's been like, a week since me and Obito officially met each other. Ever since that day at the recess area, I've been seeing the little Uchiha more and more often. First at the academy park when I come to study the kids, then a few times on the street, and finally the little kitty peeked into my store one day. It was a field day and a half when he and Madori first met each other, as expected.

They got along like cats and dogs, funny since they are both cats in my opinion. Madori and Obito clashed instantly when they met, no seriously, they just ran into each other then it was like instant hate. I don't even know how to explain it, so I just shrugged and just pull them together.

Personally, I think they get along worse now. First it was just glaring, now it's glaring, insulting, and territory matches. But hey, at least Madori has somebody to spar with other than me now~

"I don't want to see that bastard's face." The grumpy uchiha muttered, pouting in all his angry cuteness. Did I ever tell y'all that this little brats look adorable all frizzed up and pissed? I think this may become bad for my health and survival in the future.

"Aw, don't say that~ You know that you two are budding friends." The other kitty just scoffed.

"No way would we ever be friends! I just want to punch that bastard every time I see his girly be-hind." I rolled my eyes.

"You say that now, but just wait~" Hmm, I wonder if he still has all of that Kakashi hate going on right now, cause It kinda seems like Madori took his place on the hate list, or he acts that way to everyone who pisses him off.

Hard to say, hard to say.

Well, onward to the store! Thank goodness it's my break right now.

OoOoOoO

The intensity of the lightning is worrying, is that supposed to be visible? I felt a sweatdrop form above my brow, smiling awkwardly at the two older kids as they stared ice daggers at each other.

On the right sat my favorite blue haired Kitten, arms tucked into the large sleeves of his kimono as they hugged his middle. His deep blue eyes were narrowed into thin slits, jaw locked tight in a frustrated grimace. His hair fell over his right eye in a large bang that was pulled back into his low ponytail after it pasts his chin.

Across from him sat the black haired Kitty, he was wearing a orange t-shirt and black shorts,with an equally displeased expression on his face. His pale arms was crossed across his chest as he slouched deeply, a scowl marring his chubby little face as he glowered at Madori.

Both of the boys was sitting on opposite sides of the thin mat, a small sheet of paper lying between the two with the distinct tic-tac-toe formation. Two different types of chips was in the boxes, blue circles for Madori and red squares for Obito, this games also happens to be why both kids are in such a foul mood.

After hearing Obito growl after Madori made his move, I decided to give my opinion on this whole situation. "Kitties… It's just a game y'know, so can you both stop looking at each other like you want to bash your head's in?"

Obito slammed his hand on the mat, "I'm NOT losing to that bastard again!" He exclaimed, pointing at the hissing kitten, "I'm so much cooler than him! So I'm not going to let him beat me in anything!"

Madori scoffed, "Cool? You're about as cool as a sitting with old people as they tell stories about how they used to be hip and spry!"

Well this isn't going to end well.

"Hey! My Obaa-chan has tons of cool stories to tell!" Defended the black haired kitty as he jumped to his feet.

"The fact that you find them 'cool', just proves how lame you are!" Countered Tori-chan, rising to meet his enemy. They both ignored the game, stepping on it to glare into each other's eyes.

"Don't you dare call me lame you bastard! At least I don't look like a girl!"

"I don't look like a girl, you lame! At least I have more talent than you! You can barely do the leaf sticking exercise!"

Tempers flare and I can feel a headache coming on.

"I CAN DO IT! Not everyone can hold like a bazillion leafs at the same time like you! You're not even in the academy!"

Madori smirked up at the flaming uchiha, "Well doesn't that just tell you how much you suck? Doesn't it?"

"YOU BASTARD!" The younger boy launched himself at the older, who stepped out of the way. Before either of them could really start their brawl, I stepped up and grabbed both of them roughly around their shoulders. Pulling them into my sides with a tight grip and a tighter smile.

"Now now children, how about you both stop your little grudge matches before you, I don't know, RECK MY ROOM!" I griped, squeezing them both tighter. I smiled sadistically when I heard a few uncomfortable gasps from the boys, "I'll be frank with you boys, I'm up to here with your little fights. It would have been fine if you two kept it on the training fields. But you two just HAD to start fighting in the store and in my room. DO YOU TWO KNOW HOW BAD FOR BUSINESS THAT WAS!"

I dropped both of the boys and glared at them, "So don't y'all go wondering why me and Dad banned you two from the store. You can fight on the training ground, but don't you dare ruin our image with our customers by making a scene like you both did today? Got it?"

Both kids nodded, heads down and arms crossed.

"Boys." I growled, propping my hands on my hips. "I need to head back to the store now for clean up. Don't you dare make a mess of this place, I want to come back with this room exactly how I left it. Understand or do I need to repeat that?"

"I understand/ Okay." I huffed and patted both of the kids on their heads. This is what I get for bringing two hot-heads together, need to keep a closer eyes on those buggers.

Survive rule: Keep all hot heads away from each other. It's just going to make a big mess. Okay, it causes a big ass mess.

"If I'm not back by night, there is leftovers that you can warm up in the fridge." I gave them two another glare as I closed the door.

OoOoOoO

I scrubbed the tiled floors roughly with a large rag, pushing all of my weight into it so I can rub the mess stuck to the material off. I dunked the dirty rag into the bucket next to me, pushing it in and out of the murky water a few times. I wrung it tightly, a small frown on my face as I cleaned up the food stains from from the brats little fight.

If you was wondering why I was cleaning it up and not making the boys do it, it was because I'd rather get this cleaned up now then wait until the store closes. I'm not letting this mess stay here while we have customers coming in and out, how would that make us look?

Like a dirty store that's what, and that is unacceptable! Those boys will get their punishment when I get back home, and if they aren't there, I will hunt their little asses down. Now to think about a good hard punishment they can benefit from, I should go asked Eumo for some advice.

I finished cleaning after an hour or so, after I cleaned the cleaning g supplies and put them away, I had a whole other task to take care off. Replacing all of the food that got destroyed, I had enough to last for a few days, but now I'm going to have to stay overtime to make up for the crushed goods.

Ugh.

I shook my head and replaced my gloves, time to get baking.

~ A few hours later ~

I slid the last of my recent batch into the storage, tucking it carefully with its brethrens so I don't get them mixed up later. It was nearly midnight, it took just about as long as I imagined to catch up, and I still have a few hours worth of pies to bake.

Dad was in the far back working on his own cluster of jobs, making tables, stoves, and all sorts of stuff that needs to be done by tomorrow. I can hear the grinding of metal on metal accompanied by light from sparks from the back. It reminded my of my past dad, he was a mechanic too, I used to spend so much time watching him as he worked. Even now it was a soothing thing for me, a constant between both of my fathers.

I don't think back to my old life too often, it's not that it makes me sad or homesick or anything like that. But I'm usually too busy to remember what I had before. I still love my past family, but I love my new family too, I wouldn't give up this life to go back to my old one. That life is over now.

I hummed quietly as I filled the pie shell with chocolate and strawberry feeling. I still need to replace some of the cookies, thankfully the other stove is already fired up.

Wonder how the boys are doing, are they still in my room? Did they leave? Did that break 'anything? Are they fighting again? I'll just have to find out when I get home today, if I get home today. Odds are I'll be baking for a few more hours, so I won't be home until 3 am or something.

Ugh, I hate all nighters, that's Dad's thing. I hope I don't accidently cut my fingers off when I get too sleepy. I also need to take a break from this to make me and Dad some dinner, something small since we're both busy. Maybe a nice sandwich with a bottle of water, that should be quick enough for us.

I checked the pies in the oven and set out to do just that, fixing a quick meal that should carry us through that night.

OoOoOoO

I yawned loudly, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes, I gripped the front of Dad's kimono harder. I could feel his long hair brushing against my shoulders, his large strong arms effortlessly carrying me as we walked back to the inn we lived at.

"Mmm, Dad did I turn all the ovens off…" I muttered sleepily into his chest, staring drowsily at the nearly black red fabric. It was like...3 am or somethin' and I'm really sleepy. Just closed down shop and all, don't want to accidentally burn down what we worked so hard for.

"Yeah, I made sure everything was closed down before we left. So don't worry about anything Rakka-chan. Just rest." Rest sounded good right now, it really did… I sighed and stopped fighting sleep, little girls aren't supposed to work as long as I did.

I napped in Dad's arms until we reached our room, where I woke briefly to check the room over and get to bed. I looked around the dark room, rubbing my eyes to get some of the sleepiness to go away. I spotted two lumps in the room, one on the bed that I knew for a fact was Tori-chan, and the other was huddled in a ball under our spare sheets.

So Obito DID stay here after all… But wouldn't his grandma be worried? Maybe I'll send him off with a batch of cookies tomorrow, I don't remember his living conditions too well. I asked Dad to put me down and walked over to the bundle of uchiha.

"Well it's good to see that you don't mind sleeping here." I spoke quietly, wrapping my arms around the sleeping boy and hefting him onto my shoulder as gently as I could. I yawned deeply and carried him over to my bed, where Madori was at. I laid him on the far side from Madori, for a second I was worried I woke him up, but he only shifted a bit before stilling.

I smiled to myself and turned to Dad, who was getting ready to enter his own bed, "Good night Dad, hopefully these short hours bring a lot of rest."

He smiled at me, "Same to you. Rest well."

I took that as my cue to crawl between the boys and get myself settled under the covers. I felt Madori instantly cling to my side like always, the Kitten seems to have some instinct, he always knows when I'm next to him in his sleep.

They better be ready for that punishment once I wake up.

~ 5:30 am ~

I blinked my eyes open slowly, staring blankly at the ceiling like I had so many times this year alone. I reach my arms over my head, stretched them and my back until I felt it loosen up. I rolled my shoulder as I pushed the covers off of my head. Dad was in a similar position as me, the dark haired man was sitting on his bed reading a large book, probably some instruction booklet or something.

"Good morning Dad."

"Mornin' Rakka-chan."

I looked down to my side, the mess of blue hair that belong to Tori-chan clinging to my side. I could tell that he was fast asleep since his breathing was deep and even, he usually wakes up two hours after me so this is normal. But there was the new addition, the little Kitty curled up in the blue sheets on my other side, black hair peeking out from the top of the opening.

There was no need to bother the boys right now, so I hurried and slithered my way out of the bed. The cold floor made me hiss slightly on landing, I hate having cold feet, and I walked over to the tiny kitchen area we had set up to start making breakfast. While I pulled out all the ingredients I needed to make a batch of Miso soup and some Steamed rice, maybe I'll make some Tamagoyaki for protein and Hourensou No Gomaae. The boys are going to need a hearty breakfast for what I'm gonna make them do later.

Before I forget, I need to make those cookies for Obito too. I set the water to boil, pulling out the premade cookie mix I like keeping around from the bottom of the fridge and setting it on the table.

Soon enough the smell of breakfast and baking cookies wafted through the room, it's smooth smell threatening to wake the boys from their slumber. But it didn't cause little kids can sleep through almost anything, even the good smell of food making their tummies rumble in their dreams. By now I'd be eating a buffet in my dream, but I usually eat in my dreams so I guess that makes no difference.

I poured 4 bowls of miso soup and set them in the small table, I beckoned Dad over to take a seat and finished setting the table. Time to wake up the boys, I walked over to the bed and shook Madori lightly.

"Hey Tori-chan, time for breakfast." The 8 year old groaned lightly and turned away from me. "Come on Madori, before the food gets cold."

"Go away…" So that's how it's going to be huh? Smirking mischievously, I reached under the covers and grabbed his ankle. I tugged the Kitten from the bed with a grunt, dragging him onto the ground with a 'thump!'.

He groaned again, glaring at me from the floor. I met his glare with a grin of my own, pointing my thumb over to the table. "Go eat Madori, I need to wake Obito up now. Shoo shoo." I shooed him with my hands, the kid pouted and crawled over to the mats. Now for Obito, hopefully he isn't a aggressive waker.

I walked around the bed to the side he was on, still bundled up asleep. I shook the uchiha lightly, "Hey Obito, wake up." It took a few more shakes before he groaned softly, peeking out of the sheets to look up at me in confusion.

"Wha… Rakka? What are…" I smiled down at him and patted his cheek.

"You slept over yesterday, now come on, get up it's time for breakfast." I slipped my arm under his back and pulled him upright. His black eyes was clouded with sleep, but I can tell that he was becoming more aware in seconds. I pulled him up to his feet and guided him to table, sitting him down on the side next to me.

The kitty blinked a few times, before shrugging of the sheets, "Uh, is it okay that I'm eating here?"

I shrug, "Sure, why not. Just eat up Obito." I smacked him on the back and started on my own food, Madori already eating away. I made bigger portions for the boys, since they are both active they need the food and calories n' stuff.

"Oh uh...Thanks! Itadakimasu!"

Dad smiled at me from across the table, for what? I'm pretty sure I know, but I'm pretty damn pleased right now.

OoOoOoO

"Come on! Faster!"

"I'm trying!"

-splack-

"AHHHH!"

I crackled loudly, chucking the pie at the running kids with surprising accuracy. I have been preparing for this day for years, the day where I can do the one thing I always dreamed of doing! Oh how sweet the sounds of splacking, of white cream splashing across the body as it tried to get away. The smell of vanilla cloaked the small clearing we ran through, my legs skipping joyfully across the ground. A pie case held in my palm, filled to the brim with a sticky whipped topping mixture that feels like goop.

The two boys struggling to run from me was covered back to the feet with the icky substance, the weights tied to their calves slowing the usually fast runners (At least in Madori's case) down to where I don't even have to work to keep up with them. I pulled another pie from the wagon dragging behind me, and chucked it at the back of Madori's clean head. So far he managed to duck out of the way of any pie that was aimed for his head, and I was determined to see his hair filled with my special whipped goop!

Even if I'm probably going to have to wash it out for him later, I'll enjoy this while I can.

"Come on boys! Y'all can do better than that!" I yelled, pelting Obito with another pie. I crackled again, and continued chasing the boys well past the afternoon hour. By the time their punishment was over, they actually managed to get the drop on me!

It was surreal.

"Gah!" I screamed as I ran across the park, arms flailing above me head as I ran for my cleanity.

Is that even a word? Whatever.

I ducked under a thrown pie as the boys chased after me with my own pie-filled wagon, huge grins on their cute little faces.

"How would you like a taste of your own medicine!" Tori-chan screamed, suddenly tackling me down with a burst a speed that he should not have had after all of the running they did. I squeaked as the dirty goopy hands wrapped around my waist, dirtying the red fabric of my clothes with the white filth.

Ugh, Dad won't be happy with that one.

I braced my hands against the ground, spacing apart my knees to get in a good position to shake the kid off me. Before I can conduct my master plan to get away, It was foiled when the other Kitty pounced on the rest of my back, pushing my shoulders down into the dirt. I turned my head just enough to catch a large grin and a pie in a pale hand.

Well shit, I thought as I flashed them a sheepish smile, I guess I really should have expected revenge from these kitties. Just didn't think they can turn on me so soon-SPLAT!

Obito and Madori high-fived, before dumping my entire cart over me.

"Neeeeh!" I flailed again, but I can also do this. I quickly scooped some goop in my hand and smashed it into the nearest face, knocking Tori-chan on his back. I grinned and hurried to do the same to the other boy.

"Not today!" The uchiha cried out, dumping a handful of goop in my face. Madori roared behind me, tackling me to the ground again. What followed was one epic food fight to break the record books! For a group of little kids that is.

~Later~

I ran my hands through the soft black strands, rubbing the sudsy shampoo into the spiky hair. I picked up the bucket of hot water and dumped it over the pouting uchiha's head. The boy was donned in swimwear, much like Madori, as he sat in shallow water.

"Why can't I just wash myself? This is weeeeird." Obito complained, hunching over with his arms crossed. I smirked and lathered more of my special shampoo into his hair.

"Because Kitty-chan, if you want any of my special pies to get off your skin and out of you clothes. You need to wash them in a certain why, which you don't know how to. Hince! Why I am washing you, get comfy with it." I already managed to wash myself off with a different soap, but I don't feel like letting them take the faster way. Honestly, he should just be glad I didn't strip him completely and give him a full wash down, but I'll give the kid some dignity. Plus, that would be too weird.

Gods, What would it look like if I actually did do that and he remembers once he becomes OPito? Heck, how would he react when he finds out I'm a girl? I should make a bet with Dad, he's been wondering how long it would take for everyone to realize himself.

I finished up with Obito and went to the real hard case, Madori and his long ass hair. This is going to take far longer than I'd like, but I washed his hair enough times to get used to dealing with it. I dragged the soap bucket over with the remainder of the hot water.

I quickly got to work on the long hair, I scooped some water in my hand and poured it in his hair. "So did you guys have fun without me? I saw you two out like a light yesterday, and if y'all boys can sleep in the same room together, then I know you settled some of your beef with each other." I ran my fingers through his hair, working out any clumps that resisted. The boys shared a glance at each other, before turning away with a hmph!

"This is only a temporary truce." Madori snorted, "The buffoon was feeling guilty about giving you extra work because of his actions."

Obito whipped around and bared his teeth, "MY ACTIONS!? It's your fault too! If you didn't act like you are sooo much better to me, we wouldn't have even trashed the store!" He screamed, looking like a wet raging cat.

Madori scrunched up his nose and sneered, "Oh please, I'm just giving you your dues. You're the one who wouldn't shut up about how awesome your new jutsu is. One that you can barely use at that."

I knew them getting along was too much to ask for.

Before Obito can retort, I lightly hit Madori on his wet cheek with my wet hand and glared at Obito. "Okay stop." I rubbed the space between my eyes carefully, really didn't want soap in my eyes after all. "Forget I mentioned anything." This is probably going to take more work than I thought to get them to the point where they aren't at each other's throats.

OoOoOoO

I sighed deeply into the pure red mane, tiny brown hands gripping the long silky mane. I wasn't even sitting on the dark brown saddle strapped on to the evil horse, instead I was on his neck, legs dangling on either side of the base. I looked up from the red to look down the road, only a few people were walking down the street this afternoon. Hell, there was more people hopping across the rooftop express then actually down on the road right now.

"Uuuugh," I groaned into Mace's mane again, "I'm so bored, I never thought I would hate break this much." It was like I had nothing to do, Dad kicked me out of the shop for overworking myself, Madori was somewhere with Minda getting training tips. Obito was sent off to his grandmother with cookies, a pie, and new clothes. All courtesy of me of course. But after that nothing really happened and my life was boring again, lately I have been working on a few extra storage seals, safely in Dad's workshop where nobody could actually see of course.

I'm saying of course a lot today.

I scooted back onto the leather saddle and grabbed the horse's reins. "Come on Mace, let's find something to do." I lightly squeezed his middle with my tiny kid legs, so he probably didn't feel it, but he started walking in his own direction anyways. I decide to just sit back and let him lead, there wasn't anywhere I really wanted to go, so i'll just let him lead me. As long as he doesn't lead me to the underworld or whatever hell horses try to do.

In hindsight, I probably should've paid more attention to where he was taking me, how was I supposed to know that he would lead me into the freaking red light district!?

Flipping Demonic Horses!

I kept my head low, the hood of my jacket drawn over my head. Thank God I choose to wear a hoodie today, not that it would help since my family are the only ones in Konoha that have a horse like Mace. I'm also usually seen with him, so that's a thing. Oh well, I'll just pretend that this is helping, that'll make me feel better.

I leaned down on the saddle and whispered to Mace, "Why did you bring me here? You should know that this place is dangerous!" I hissed.

The stallion turned his head to the side and stared at me with one red slitted eye, I held his gaze with a frown. I recognized that look in his eye, the one that says, 'What? Do you really think I don't know what I'm doing?'. I huffed and looked down, "Okay okay, I'll trust you."

Mace snorted and looked away, continuing his unrushed walk through the dirty streets. Whenever one of the citizens of this place would stare at us too long, more specifically me, Mace would glare at them with that killer glare of his and make them piss there pants. Not really but you get the gest.

I frowned, feeling really uncomfortable with being down here. Sure I've seen places like this before in both of my lives, but I never enjoyed seeing people getting mugged, acting stupid while drunk, or any other thing that they can get away with. You'd think that in a shinobi village that they would have more order for districts like this, but no, people can still get assaulted without a single shinobi stepping in. Hell, it can even be a shinobi doing the stupid shit.

Guess that's just reality for ya', at least Mace is here, he can probably handle more than a few unsavory people.

Mace carried me through the main streets, ignoring all of the stares or talk some of the people were doing. Soon enough he lead me into a more forested park-like area, the large horse stopped his walk and kneeled down. He looked over his shoulder and glared at me, "Wait...you want me to get off?" I asked, "Why? You know I can't be left alone." He just continued his glare, obviously not caring about the fact that me be 4 year old little girl in bad place.

He is lucky I trust him so much. I made my displeasure known with a glare of my own and slowly lowered myself off of the saddle. I stepped back as he stood up and walked further into an alley by the side of the park, leaving me standing next to a bench by myself.

I shoved my hands in my pocket and kept my head down, leaning against the side of the bench. I wonder what Mace is doing back there, That horse really does confuse me sometimes. He is so mysterious, ever since that day we met him on the outskirts of the Land of Rivers. I really had no idea where Dad actually got him, I was just left in our wagon alone one night when we was sneaking through the border. Dad told me to stay in the wagon because he 'noticed something', usually we would hide together in the wagon if there was a threat hanging around. But that was before I learned that Dad enjoys investigating odd occurrences during our travels.

So I hid in the wagon and after a hour or so Dad came back with Mace in tow, when I asked about him Dad just smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. Which he usually doesn't do on nervous habit, kinda suspicious really.

I dropped it after getting nothing from him the entire week, besides, Mace was way too interesting to let go.

"Hey Kid." I tensed up, clenching my hands in my pockets. I peeked up from under my hood, seeing a man dressed in dark brown clothes standing shakily next to me. I let my eyes trail over to his hand, which was holding a suspicious white bottle. I looked up to his chin (The most I can see without him seeing my face.) and scowled at the man.

"Whatcha' want?" I growled sharply, deepening my voice slightly to really cement the fact that I was a young boy instead of a girl, better to be seen as a boy than a girl. I kept my body slightly relaxed, it's easier to get into action like this. The hard part is making sure I don't lock up if he gets any closer.

Which the man did, he walked closer to me in a little tilted stumble, I backed of a step. "Back off." I hissed.

"Hey now kid, how about you stop with that little rude attitude and listen up." The man slurred again, still walking closer to me. I narrowed my eyes at him and glance around quickly, there was a few people hanging around this area but none of them was paying me any mind. I could easily out run away from this guy, he was obviously drunk and in no position to chance me if I dip. But then I'll be leaving Mace behind and I know that would piss him off, and having a pissed of demonic horse is not a fun experience.

I looked the guy up and down again, he wasn't particularly muscular or tall. His shirt bulge out a tiny bit, a pot belly most likely. He didn't look like a fighter, a civilian definitely, and odds are I can probably take him down if I play it smart. I may be able to fend of little shinobi hopefuls, but any grown man can probably take me down due to sheer size difference and power.

"Why should I?" Don't touch me you drunk motherfucker, If you touch me going to fucking kick your ass.

"Because you brats down here should know that you aren't welcome in my territory. No kids allowed doncha' fucking see?" He flourished his hand holding the bottle of liquor toward...something. I couldn't see what he was trying to make me see, all I see right now was a delusional man off his bonkers. See this is why I don't tolerate drunk people.

"I don't see no sign saying that I can't be here, so why don't ya' go finish your drink somewhere else!"

I don't think my attitude is helping.

"You little brat!" He stepped forward menacingly and reached out to grab me, as soon as his hand got to close I snached it by the wrist and pulled as hard as I could. When he was stumbled forward I pushed the hand away, stepped forward, and kicked him in the balls. I decked the guy in the face and kicked him in the side.

"Hey Ken! What the hell taking so long for?" I heard a man yell out, when I turned from the man trying to get his bearing on the ground, I saw a group of four men walking towards me. All of them probably about as drunk as this guy. They took noticed to their buddy on the ground and looked at me. "Hey! What do you think you're doing brat!"

Ah Shit. I grimaced and turned on my heel, running into the alley I saw Mace walk down. Screw fighting all of them, I'm getting out of here and hoping they are too drunk to remember that I beat one of them up.

"Get back here!" Nope. Nope. Nope. Just gonna keep running, not that I knew where I knew where I was going. I could hear their footsteps trailing behind me as I dashed through the narrow alleyways, maybe I could make my way into a better area, one where they can't follow me without catching a lot of attention.

Before I could try and find a way out of the general area, I spotted a very familiar Stallion in a opening between a few buildings. "MACE!" I cried out, sliding to a stop in front of the massive horse. He turned his head slowly and looked down at me, before looking where I came with an annoyed glare. Soon after I came charging through, the men, only three of the five (The one I deck included), came running into the clearing.

I scowled at them and pulled my hood down, I know that they couldn't see me well since it was dark out and all, but I don't want to risk it. I slide behind Mace, letting his mass hide mine.

The men pause a little ways into the clearing, looking at Mace wearly. "What they hell is that thing?" One of them mumbled.

"It's a horse, what do you think dumbass?" Another hissed.

"Ain't no horse got glowing red eyes, numbskull!"

Glowing red eyes eh? I wasn't paying to much attention, but when Mace looked at me his eyes was glowing red, a brighter red than it usually glows. While I was thinking, Mace turned his body to full face the men, head held low and demonic red eyes glaring icily into the drunks. He raked his front hoof into the dirt ground and puffed air out of his nose like a bull, or dragon, either one.

I recognized his behavior, he was angry, angry and ready to kick some ass. He hasn't gotten a lot of action sense he got here, so he is probably kinda happy that he has a chance to cause pain to something without me or Dad stopping him.

"Kick there asses! Mace!" I cheered, also drawing attention to myself.

"Hey! There is that brat! Come on!" The unknown guy no.2 cried out, running past his buddies to get to me.

Big Mistake. It was over before anything could even happen. No seriously, that guy just got knocked into a wall and Mace currently holding another man down with one hoof. The only guy who was untouched stumbled away from the horse, fear shining in his dark eyes. Mace met the man's fearful gaze as he ground his hoof deeper into the other's back, smoke wisping up from shirt the man was wearing.

"D-d-demon!" he cried out, turning to run into the alley. Mace lowered his head, ignoring the cries of pain from the man being crushed, and moved to chase the man down.

"Mace stop." A single glowing red eye turned to me, "I think they learned their lesson, let's just head back home, ok?" I smiled up at the Hell horse. To be honest, I don't feel bad for these guys, but I guess setting Mace on them is a bit much. I walked up to the stallion and ran my hand along his side, his skin was hot, like really really hot. It didn't feel bad though, I nudge him to get off the man, he knows his place already.

Once the horse moved off of the man and I made sure he wasn't dying, I heaved him onto Mace's back when the horse knelt and went to the hole the other man went through. He wasn't dead either, thank goodness for that, but he was definitely injured and out for the count. I repeat the process of getting him on Mace and guided the horse by his reins until we got to the open park I was supposed to stay at.

"I really hopes this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass." I mutter as I dump the men on the bench. I pulled myself up onto Mace's saddle and lean down, "Mace get me to the stables."

OoOoOoO

I pushed open the doors to the store with my hip, a large box held tightly in my hands. I turned and hurried into the back of the store, nodding politely to the customers that made eye-contact with me. Once I could see the desk we put all of our mail/packages, I stood on the stepping stool and set it a small empty space.

"Dad!" I called, "The package from Kiori-san is here!"

"Got you!" He called from somewhere up front. I pushed the box to the side and gathered the mail that was on the table, I pulled up a chair and started sorting through them.

It's been a week or so since the Mace accident, thankfully we haven't had anyone knocking at our door yet. But Dad did come up to me a day or so ago to question why he heard rumors of "a Demon in the form of a horse that uses a little kid to draw them near." All I could really do was laugh nervously, because there was no way I could've played out of that without looking stupid. My reward was another lecture that pretty much passed over my head, I knew what I could do and what not. I just… ignore it often, what's life without a little dangerous fun?

Survival Rule: Don't let demonic horses take you anywhere they want. It can lead to dangerous situations and/or being taken somewhere you really don't want to be.

Also: Try not to look too dreamy when somebody (Like your Dad) is talking to you. It just makes the lecture longer.

I sighed, running my hand down the side of my face, I had 5 more new deliveries to make now. Looks like I'll need to head out after I finish sorting these, but then I need to hurry up and bake more pies. I was able to get most of the stock back up thankfully, but with all of these orders, I might run out too soon for my tastes.

Let's see here, I need 40 pies exactly. 10 for the party at Chusuko's, 5 for for that fancy restaurant place we're partnered with… and 1 for Ruina. Okay, this won't be too hard… hopefully. I spent enough time going through these now, time to get to work.

After I got everything recorded in our records and all of the pies boxed up, I hurried up and stacked them on my wagon. I did a quick count to see that I will have to make 2 trips, but I have enough time to do this.

"Rakka!" I heard Dad call, I looked around to see him carrying a crate of something, "Listen, I need you to make a few deliveries to some of my clients, only three this time."

"Okay, do you have there locations recorded, and the times?" He nodded, "Can you move you own stuff to the wagon then? I need to get my orders in right now."

"I can do that."

We both managed to get everything in the back of the wagon in a orderly fashion, soon enough I was holding the horse's' reins and setting off while Dad gave Ruina her pie personally.

~After all of the orders are delivered~

"Come on Brace, Mace, it's finally time to head back!" I called to the two Stallions, waving good-bye to the woman I just dropped the last pie off to. I climbed up into the front of the wagon and took up the reins, "It's gonna be a straight trip, no detours this time around."

I lightly cracked the reins and we're off, moving at a decent enough pace without looking like we was speeding. I needed to get back to the store fast, who knows how much more orders I'll have? The pies I still need to bake need to be made too!

Madori was even helping today, last I saw, Dad was making him take half the orders and bring the pies to the customers in the store. He usually is allowed to stay at the Inn or go play/train in the park, it wasn't even a tough day. We wasn't overloaded and it was pretty slow besides all of the deliveries we need to get out. Actually, now that I think about it, this is a perfect time to get him used to being a waiter, no rushes or overload of customers to possibly stress him like it does me sometimes.

It would teach him how to interact with people without pissing them off too, something he needs a lot of work on (Since he runs his mouth as bad as I do. Just without all of the swearing. I try not to swear to much around him.).

He has been doing a lot of training and holeing himself up to study Konoha's history and economy. Since the kid is still set on becoming an official shinobi, he wants to learn as much as he can before having to take any exams. Speaking on that, he still hasn't given us a answer on if he wants to stay in Konoha or come with me and Dad yet, but I guess he still has plenty of time to decide. Though a year isn't as long as a time as some may think.

As a result of him isolating himself from everyone not in his family, he has terrible people skills (Example: Obito) that need to be trained more than his shinobi skills. Maybe I should introduce him to a few other kids, he may hate it but it's still good practice. But who could I get him to talk to him? Obito would be disastrous and I don't know any other kids. Minda and Reyu seem to be cool enough to hang around, but they are usually too busy to spend much time around.

Ugh, complications.

I need more friends.

"Hey! Yurei-san!" Eh?

I motioned for the horses to stop, tugging on the reins enough that they can feel it. I tied their reins to the front of the seat and looked around the corner of the wagon to see who could be calling me.

A young girl with auburn hair tied up in a high ponytail, dressed in a light brown dress with barely visible tights underneath. I squinted at her, before smiling brightly. I didn't recognize that girl at all, but usually smiling makes this easier to deal with.

"Yes? Can I help you?" I called out to her, pulling up my ankle on my right thigh. The slightly plump girl slowed to a slow stop in front of me, her full lips pulled into a small, polite smile. I noticed a familiar design stitched across the chest of her dress, it was the Akimichi symbol, one I've seen plenty of times since I moved to Konoha. I cocked my head to the side, brushing a stray strand of dark hair out of my eyes.

"Ah, Yurei-san…" She messed with the skirt of her dress a little, but kept eye contact with me, "I was wondering of you could help me come up with a dessert for my friends cooking contest…" I looked at her curiously, motioning for her to continue.

"I usually would ask my parent's for a recipe, but I was hoping that I can make something new, something they wouldn't expect from me! I know that you're the one who made that cake for my birthday, so I was hoping if you can teach me how to make something new like that," She clasped her hands together and looked at me with puppy dog eyes...which doesn't actually work on me. "Can you help me Yurei-san? I'll be in your dept!"

I didn't answer her, pressing the palm of my hand against my chin. I could help her, there was no doubt about that, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to teach her. I'm still pretty busy, I don't have enough breaks where I can spend teaching. But, I might be able to do it still, if she is a fast learner. I'll have to ask Dad to give me a little more time off so I can do this, he should let me. There is also the matter as to what I should teach her, what kind of dessert should she learn? Does she want a hot or cold dessert? Does her friends have any allergies?

Oh wait I didn't answer yet, "Sure thing Akimichi-san! I'll be happy to help you out! Come to my shop tomorrow at noon, I should have everything ready for you, Okay?"

The girl let out a cheer, "Thank you! I'm Akimichi Mainou!"

I grinned at her and pointed my thumb to my chest, "Yurei Rakka at your service."

"I look forward to working with you Yurei-san! Have a nice day!" I waved Mainou off, unlatching the reins from the spot I tied it.

"Come on boys!" I cracked them once, and we were off.

OoOoOoO

I pulled the silky blue hair carefully into a part, wedging it in between my fingers so I can grab the last section. I picked up the comb from the bed and cleaned up the parts on Madori's hair, then set it down so I can start braiding it.

The elder boy winced when I pulled his hair tightly, but didn't voice his pain, instead focusing on the papers in front of him. A thin pencil gripped tightly in his hand, this was the homework that Dad left him to do earlier, I think it's the history concerning the First Shinobi World War.

I didn't really care to learn about what Madori was reading, while I'm sure that it has a lot of new information about things the anime and Manga didn't show us, it was filled with propaganda that only tells the war in Konoha's favor, nothing I want to get my information from. Madori asked me why he need to know this if it's just 'crap' as I put it, but I told him that it's just required. Remember it and you will be golden.

I heard a short gasp of pain when I accidentally pull a tad too hard, "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's fine, I need to get used to pain anyways." He muttered, scratching out something on the scrap paper next to the textbook. He really was trying to catch up academically, if it wasn't for the fact that I have 17 years of schooling under my belt, I'd feel inspired to learn more myself. Sadly, 17 years was enough studying for me, I'm enjoying being free from schooling in this life. Unless Dad enrolls me in formal schooling for some reason...

He wouldn't do that to me, would he?

Naaaaah.

"I would hope that you wouldn't get yourself beat up in the future, buuuuuuut I'm not that naive. Learning pain tolerance is really the best thing, y'know?" I clipped the finished braid with the rest of the others, using the comb to separate a new part to get started on.

"Being able to take pain is important, but being fast enough to dodge any attack is more my style."

I snorted, "Oh please, being fast is literally one of the only things that keep most of these child shinobi alive. Everyone's going to expect that, not to mention that even if you become the fastest of your age group, most of the advanced shinobi are crazy fast. It's going to be tough to stand out against them." Another braid finished, "I don't want you to become a glass cannon out there."

"Glass cannon?" He questioned, must not have used that one around him yet...odd.

"A being that has great power, but would shatter at the slightest hit. Like glass." A few characters I know came to mind, "Yeah, I'd prefer you not being a one hit wonder."

Madori huffed lightly, "Well what would you suggest?"

I tapped by free finger against my chin, humming in thought.

Madori seems like he has a good grip on most of the arts he is learning. While he is fairly small, that is only because of his previous diet, and I'm already fixing that anyways. He is fast, that's for certain, and he is a quick learner for things he has an aptitude in.

Hmm.

"I think you should try to focus on something a little more, subtle, than all these other kids (Thinking Rookie 9 right now.). Maybe an assassin type? You're fast and sneaky, and good at making yourself blend into the crowd. Well, as well as a kid with blue hair can ("Grr."). I can see you using poisons and traps to take your foes down secretly. Maybe try dabbling in genjutsu when you get a sensei to learn from."

"But..." I hear a complaint coming, "That seems really lame though, getting into intense taijutsu and ninjutsu battles is way cooler!" I sighed, shaking my head. What is it with Naruto and big, direct battles? Aren't they supposed to be ninjas? Being an assassin seems like a far better use for chakra, something subtle that won't tip anyone's radars until the deed is done.

But I guess every warrior type needs cannon fodder they can just throw into battle for mass destruction.

I personally think that all you need is one well trained assassin to take out the head of the beast while it was busy locked in battle. Not really honorable or fair, but such a wasted opportunity to not use!

"You won't be singing that tune when you become entangled in the life of a shinobi. Buuuuut, I guess having the ability to fight one-on-one with a shinobi is equally as important as being able to kill them secretly."

We were both silent after that, hopefully he was considering my ideas. I'd hate for him to become cannon fodder in the future.

OoOoOoO

I looked over me desert plans I drew up last night, detailing all the types of desert I can help Mainou make for her party, contest, thing. I stuck it up on the wall next to me and Madori's bed, so I won't forget that I had to make sure I have everything set up for later today.

I wiggled out of Madori's grip and got off the bed, taking the paper off the wall and walking into the kitchen area to get started on breakfast. I waved at Dad, who was already sitting at the table reading something,

"Up early today, don't you think?" I made a face at that,

"You're one to talk, getting up early is a good habit. Gives me more time to get stuff done, y'know?" I pulled out the box of Miso and set it aside, preparing to make a large breakfast since Madori is going to be working again today. He is going to need a full stomach to keep his mind clear all day.

"That is true." He agreed, setting aside the book to write something down on paper. All I could make out from here was a bunch of numbers and random passages of notes, all organized of course. If it was me, my notes would be written on everything in an unorganized mess.

I need to work on that.

Now back to what I was supposed to be planning, what to make for Mainou's party. I already have a list of Hybrid Desserts that just became popular before I died, since they are all pretty damn recent for where I used to be, I just KNOW it is going to be something never seen before here!

At least I hope... ANYWAYS!

I need to check my storage for any extra ingredients (And to make sure I have them all.) and make sure I remember how to make them properly. Before Mainou gets here too!

"Madori! Wake up and eat your breakfast!" I yelled as I set the table, sliding Dad a cup of tea. He nodded to me and continued to work on his papers while my blue haired kitten grumbled something from our bed. "Don't give me that tone! Come and eat!"

I heard a muffled hiss from under the covers, but Madori did start to push the covers off of him. I nodded in victory and plopped down at the table, crisscrossing my legs instead of sitting on them like I'm 'supposed' to do. I just find that uncomfortable.

After a grumpy 'dori finally sat at the table, breakfast officially started.

"Itadakimasu!"

"So Rakka-chan, what are planning to do for Akimichi-san?"

"Well, I was thinking about teaching her how to make Hybrid desserts. Like my Ice cream cakes or cookie pies. I have a few recipes in my mind, but I need to make sure I remember how to make them. So what I really want to teach her is a Peanut Butter Brownie Ice Cream Cake, it's something I learned to make after looking for new dessert ideas in the past life. Sadly, we don't have the proper candies here to add, so I'll just have to find a substitute for that. Maybe some normal chocolate bars will work...

Oh, and I also want to teach her how to make these awesome little edible cups she can pour some drinks into! Well, milk products at least." I don't think those cookie cups will taste good with anything other than milk... shame.

Madori looked at me curiously, "Hey Rakka... do you think you can tell me more about what your past life was like sometime?"

I blinked in surprise at the question, honestly I didn't expect him to really care about my past life until he actually got old enough to where he can catch on that it's not normal to be reincarnated. I didn't tell him about Naruto yet, but he does know that I lived a life before this one in a veeeeeerrrrryyyyy far away place. Didn't see why I should hide that from him, since he is apart of my family now (I would never tell somebody like Obito for obvious reasons. I like the kid, but I don't need him knowing that when he gets older.)

"Maybe Kitten, If you want to ask me any specific questions you can, just only when we are alone in Dad's workshop. Okay?"

"Okay."

OoOoOoO

I stuck my tongue out as I scrubbed the floor with a mop, It wasn't particularly dirty, but I think it needs to look a little shinier before we opened up for the day. Madori was wiping down the tables not far from me, a disgruntled look on his face.

"Aaaand, done!" I ran a hand through my hair and stood back to admire my work, even if it's going to be ruined once people start to come in. Now I just have to go check inventory, me and Dad's deliveries, and make sure we got our new supplies.

I pushed the mop and bucket I was using into the back of the store, dumping the dirty water down the drainage hole and making sure the I squeezed all the dirt out of the mop. A quick wash of the hands and I'm finally looking at all of our inventory, holding a small clipboard in my hand so I can mark down how many of each item we have.

Hmm...we're getting low on marshmallow fluff, only around half of what we need left. The white chocolate supply is low too... I need to restock in at least half of the fruits we have too. The fruits wasn't bad, but they have a couple of days left on them before I need to throw them out. I'll have to use these today, that's for sure.

Can't really afford to be wasting money letting the rot...well, we can, but you get the point.

"Dad, did our new shipments come in yet!"

"Not yet! But they should be here before night comes!" I frowned, the shipments was supposed to come this morning, not this night. I don't really like it when those come late, but I have enough to survive the day at least.

"Okay! If I'm not here can you add it to the inventory?"

"Yeah!"

"Thanks!"

The deliveries we already have filed wasn't exactly numerous, but I should know better than everyone that once the days start they start flowing in...well not exactly. While Konoha is a big village, there isn't something going on everyday that requires sweets and goodies to be delivered by the dozen. We get plenty of people who come in everyday for treats, tea (or coffee, depends), sandwiches, and just to use it as a nice hang out.

Dad truly gets the most deliveries, since buildings are still being made, and people really like buying his awesome supplies. If our professions were in separate buildings, those stores would be set and decently successful. However, since our business are combined, we get a lot more customers! Most people who come in for Dad's stuff usually buy some of my stuff before they leave.

So I think having both in the same building was a good choice! ...Even if we did get a few people worrying about that.

Ah well, you win some and you lose some.

Now lets see here, I need to take the 3 new tables...

~ 11:45 AM ~

I set the last set of cookie cups in the refrigerator to set, then checked our freezer to make sure that the cake I just made was freezing well. After a little prodding and no collapse, I proclaimed it a success and closed everything up before the room temperature air messed it up.

I finally have everything ready for Mainou when she shows up, I can't wait to show here what I have in store! Hahahahahaha! It was nearly noon, so the clan girl should be rolling in soon. With everything else ready, all I had to do was go up front and wait for her to come in!

Gosh I feel so giddy right now, I love showing off!

...hmm, maybe that's not a good thing. Anyhow.

I skipped to the front of the store and pulled myself up on one of the seats behind the main counter. I snickered at Madori, the blue haired kitten was struggling to deal with a few older girls talking to him while he took their orders. It's not that he is shy around girls or older people...he just has trouble putting up with their bullshit and he looks about ready to throw the drinks he's holding at their faces. He glanced over at me and shot a venomous glare when he noticed I was laughing at him. In return, I sent him a thumbs up, he just huffed at me and went to the next table.

At least he's doing his job.

Oh, and there was that group of women that started coming in more often, don't tell anyone I said this, but I think they only come so they can stare at my Dad. It's kinda creepy really.

Ah the pains of being handsome.

I felt a strong nudge against my back while I was musing and looked up at Dad over my shoulder. He pointed over at the entrance, where the auburn haired girl I was waiting for just came in from. "Thanks." He nodded and went back to manning the register.

I jumped off the seat and pushed past the like gate thing, skipping up to the much taller girl with a smile. The girl was looking at our menu curiously, so when I spoke up she got startled."Akimichi-san! You're just on time."

"Oh! Yurei-san! I didn't see you walk up!" Obviously, she looked at the menu again before smiling down at me, "You guy's really have quite the selection for your store!" I gestured for her to follow me and start walking back to the kitchen.

"Yep! We pride yourself on our large and unique selection of baked goods. You won't find half of our pastries anywhere else in Konoha!" Can't resist a little advertising, "I happen to have everything we need set up in the back, I'm sure you're going to really enjoy it!"

"Knowing what you already showed me, I'm really looking forward to it!" I grinned and guided her into the back, I let her look around the back area for a few seconds before pulling out the cake from the freezer. I heard her 'oooooo' when I set the cake down on the table, a plate and knife already waiting for the frosty arrival.

"This," I waved to the cake, "Is a specialty called a Hybrid Dessert, this one is called a Peanut Butter Brownie Ice cream cake. It's a Hybrid because it combines 3 types of dessert into one. Candy bars, Brownies, and Ice cream! Now, you have already tried one of my Hybrids at your party a while ago, so you are familiar with this." I take up the knife and cut a decent slice of the cake, laying it down on it's side.

"It looks and smells so good! I can see how it's similar to the cake you made, the inside looks almost exactly alike!" I hand the teenager the plate and a fork, urging her to try some.

"Don't eat it too fast, you might get a brain freeze." Mainou nodded and took a bite off the dessert. I watched her intently as she tasted it...before realizing I was breaking one of my survival rules and remembering the last time I watched somebody eat like a creeper.

Thankfully my concerns meant nothing, she didn't make any of the disturbing faces her uncle (Was it her uncle? Can't remember.) made when he tried one of my pies. Instead, she made a muffled squealing noise and made those strange gestures anime people do when they eat something good.

"This is sooo good! I just love how all of these flavors blend together in my mouth! It's like I'm eating heaven! It's just soo great and it looks amazing! I don't know if I like this better than your Delirium Cake or not, they are both so amazing!" I smirked in pride and puffed out my chest, soaking up the praise raining down on me. I wasn't the creator of either of these recipes, but I think I'm doing them justices by introducing them to a new land! I may not make them as good as the creators, but I'm so happy that everyone likes how I make them too!

And now it's time to spread the knowledge!

"I'm glad you like it, Mainou-san!" I chirped, "Cause this is what I chosen to teach you for your contest! Along with another special treat."

"Oh! What is it?" I hope the chocolate finished setting, I popped open the fridge and pulled out the tray holding 2 decent shot glass sized cookie cups. I let her fangirl over it while I pulled chocolate milk out to fill them with.

"This, is a cookie cup, a nice edible cup to drink dairy drinks in." Mainou watched carefully as I poured the chocolate milk into the cups, I took one and let her get the other. "This is a nice little party treat to have during meetings and celebrations!" I drank the whole cup in one go, like a real shot, as she studied the cup in her hands.

"I see, you're using the chocolate coating inside to keep the actually cookie from getting soggy! That's pretty clever! Where did you learn to make this stuff?" I cocked my head to the side and shot her a charming smile.

"That, is a secret." Not really, but I enjoyed the small look of frustration on her face. "Come on now, it's time I actually show you how to make these!"

And so I taught her how to make some of my favorite types of desserts, and I got to admit, it was pretty fun teaching somebody who is good a cooking, unlike a certain blue haired kitten who was struggling with giggling girls again out front again.

Heh.

* * *

 **Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's a wrap! Holy crap it took me a long time to get this chapter out, not because it's difficult to write or anything, but because I can't actually access any of my fanfictions anymore.**

 **I for one, refuse to type on my phone (Though I did a little in this chapter before giving up.), but I found a way around this hurdle a few days ago. So expect a few more updates of my other stories soon!**

 **Also plenty of Mace and his evilness. Expect more Obito vs Madori too. The recipes for the Hybrid desserts I was talking about can be found on 2016 hybrid dessert trends. I own neither of these recipes but I really hope I can make both one day!**

 **I might put more canon character interactions in soon...**

 **Thanks for all of the reviews I've gotten ever since I started this story, I don't remember if I said this yet, but I love reading everything you've got to say about this story~ It's nice to know that somebody actually likes this!**

 **I also appreciate any ideas you give me! I had a few I wanted to do...but I had trouble executing it ~.**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a nice day Loves and happy summer!**


End file.
